In 2020, the powerful Israeli bassist and Sephardic-inspired world-jazz composer Avishai Cohen celebrates his 50th birthday with 50 concerts in 50 countries, accompanied by members of this fine band. Arvoles features an all-Cohen tracklist save for the traditional Judeo-Spanish title-track, the arrangements enhance his current trio with flute and trombone, and the leader makes no secret of some backward glances over the compositional influences that have affected him since his eloquent Colors album in 2000. Some might be relieved to learn that Arvoles unequivocally returns to contemporary jazz after Cohen's unevenly-received pop and vocal venture, 1970, last year. Some tracks visit the kind of intricately overlaid, funk and hip-hop-influenced grooves that Cohen began mixing with his naturally lyrical sensibility in the mid-noughties, when the redoubtable Mark Giuliana was his drummer. The descending hook and brittle drumming of ‘Simonero’ becomes the snappy underpinning for a languid flute/trombone melody, the piano loop of ‘Elchinov’ folds into subtle counterpoint and a sonorous, melodically-slewing Cohen bass break. ‘Childhood (For Carmel)’ and ‘Nostalgia’ foreground his ability to write music that sounds as if it was meant to be sung, while ‘Wings’ is breezily buoyant, brushes-driven swing. The leader apparently never intended these pieces, written over two years, to be on the same tracklist – but the dynamic playing as well as an unintended synchronicity binds them, even if perhaps there isn't a real standout here to join this fine artist's classy CV.