Whether it’s with watercolors, singing voice or jazz guitar, Julie Cohn expresses herself in ways that enchant others.
Painting and music, Cohn said from her Berkeley art studio, “They’re both full of spirit and heart. The more I do both, the more I feel authentically myself. I’m letting in my true feelings and being centered.”
In the art world, she’s known as Julie Cohn. In the music world, she goes simply by “Juls.” “There’s a different kind of intimate feeling with singing. And that brings on the nickname, to reflect a more personal connection through the voice, which is so much about our feelings. ‘Juls’ just seems more familiar.”
Now based in El Sobrante, she grew up in San Bruno and Hillsborough. Her father, a Holocaust survivor, was vice president of Levi Strauss. Cohn’s “Juls and Friends” concert at Angelica’s in Redwood City on Jan. 5 will mark her first time playing a Peninsula venue. Most of her shows have been in the East Bay. “I feel like this concert is all about going home.”
Her sets include originals and standards with her own distinctive interpretations. Cohn spices up her jazz with funk, blues, swing and samba flavors. Joining her at Angelica’s will be pianist Dave Gittler, drummer Achyutan and bassist Richard Saunders. Cohn will play jazz guitar during a solo spot.
As a child, Cohn listened to her father’s Frank Sinatra records, her sister’s Barbra Streisand and show-tune albums, plus her brother’s blues, Beatles and, later, jazz. In her teens, Cohn turned to folk-rock singer-songwriters such as Carole King, Carly Simon and Jim Croce. Joni Mitchell’s poetry and rhythmic, jazzy style shifted her perspective on music.
“Along with what my brother was playing, her music allowed me to begin to see the complexity of jazz, but also the nuance and variety. And I wanted to study it my whole life. I was hooked.”
Cohn began studying voice, including stints with Tuck and Patti, as well as Daria of Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks and other groups. Cohn also immersed herself in the recordings of greats like Shirley Horn.
Her brother Steve, now living in New Jersey, is a free jazz pianist/composer and a master of shakuhachi bamboo flute. His approach has influenced her music. “It has loosened me up,” Cohn said, laughing. Their sister Debbie is a gifted singer and collage artist living near Mount Shasta.
Like music, art has also always been important to Cohn. When her older siblings left for college, their mother began painting again. That inspired 10-year-old Cohn to pick up the brushes. She studied art at UC-Berkeley.
After working in other media, Cohn found an affinity with watercolors. “The medium is improvisational the way jazz is,” she said. “In both, there’s a conversation. There’s a sense that it’s not all about me controlling everything. There’s something else coming through me. There’s movement in the water and there’s movement in jazz, which seemed very similar to me.”
Her art and her music affect one another. “When I’m scatting, I can think about shapes that I’ve worked with in art, because I’m so used to visualizing things. I can sing a song about the ocean and images of the ocean will come up in my mind’s eye and I will scat to those images.
“I can feel a song based on the way a painting is made with either lots of line or dots or flowing, blending color. That relationship can then superimpose on singing, where the scatting is more punctuated or it’s longer. There are all kinds of parallels.”
Cohn, who has moved from representational to more abstract images, often listens to music as she brings her watercolors to life. “I’m very rhythmical in the way I move when I paint. I put down the paint, I watch it move, then it answers me and I do something else. So it’s like working with the band, hearing what they’ve done, then responding. It’s basically playing music on the paper. That’s what it feels like for me.”
Teaching art at College of Marin and in her studio, she’s a performer — demonstrating and sharing. “That’s just a part of my personality,” Cohn said.
Breast cancer took her mother at age 57. Cohn, now 58, faced the same disease six years ago. With the aid of alternative medicine, she is now cancer-free.
Cohn and her husband of 27 years, Michael Chadwick, met in a jazz ensemble class. After working with Kaiser for years, he is developing a therapeutic massage practice.
Art and music are therapeutic for Cohn. “Life brings all of us challenges. One thing I’ve found about art and music — they are extremely healing practices. To look at art is healing. To do art is healing. The same with listening to music and playing music. I’ve used art and music to heal from some tough illnesses. I’m amazed by creativity and how it helps in so many ways.
“In these troubled times that we’re having, with depressing things going on in the news, for me, the relaxation of these two mediums is so helpful. We all need something, right?” Cohn laughed.
Cohn is planning to record a CD in the near future. It will include original compositions. “My songs have to do with relationships, communication, looking at the world around us and appreciating all creatures — animals and human. It’s easy to stay negative. I’ve made a choice in my life to know what’s going on in the news, but to not drown myself in it, to basically orient myself toward positive energy.
“Art and music have helped me with my journey. By allowing me to get my emotions out, they have helped me overcome my fears. By being more open in my life, being more joyful, understanding more clearly how to find joy, I can have a better life and, consequently, maybe help others to have a better life, too. Art and music are helping me to do those things.”
Email Paul Freeman at paul@popcultureclassics.com.
Music
Who: Juls and Friends
Where: Angelica’s, Bell Stage Main Dining Room, 831 Main St., Redwood City
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5, 2018
Tickets: $17-$29 (plus $20 minimum food/bar charge per person); 650-679-8184 or www.angelicasllc.com
Artist websites: www.julsanddavemusic.com and www.juliecohnfineart.com
