LEFT: Emmet Cohen
BELOW: Cohen performs with
George Coleman, Russell Hall
and Bryan Carter.
PHOTO BY JOHN ABBOTT
close to the political sphere.
On Nov. 9, 2016, at the Palais
des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and
before playing Beethoven, the
pianist spoke out against the
election of Donald Trump.
“I’ve always been a political
person,” he says. “No matter
what I do, I try to be an aware
and responsible human being.
That night, I just felt a great deal
of urgency. It felt urgent for me
to speak to the audience. I’m not
doing that regularly.”
On a lighter side, what he does
regularly is collect Jewish jokes.
He says that he can’t forget them
once he hears them, and he con-
siders that a very important part
of who he is. He declined, how-
ever, to repeat one for us.
Exercising some personal
humor, he named his newest
piano Monk after legendary jazz
artist Thelonious Monk.
“I always considered
Thelonious Monk not only one of
the greatest jazz pianists of the
20th century but also one of the
most central composers of the
20th century, not regarding any
question of genre,” he says.
“Monk has always been a very
important figure for me. Some
of the musicians I very much
admire are jazz musicians. I play
jazz for myself sometimes. But
not in public.”
Sharing Levit’s admiration for
Monk is Emmet Cohen, a jazz
pianist, composer and teacher
making a second appearance at
the Gilmore. Because improvisa-
tion is so much a part of Cohen’s
style, no decision has yet been
made on what he will play.
“A big part of what we do as
jazz musicians, and what I do
with my band, is consider our
surroundings and let that influ-
ence how and what we present,”
says Cohen, proud to be a finalist
in the 2011 Thelonious Monk
Competition. “We will use our
repertoire as our musical context
to put together a musical conver-
sation and let the audience in on
that conversation.
“I feel very strongly about
playing music that is full of life,
energy, swing and joy while still
letting other emotions come
through, whether sadness,
anguish, anger or uncertainty.
Hopefully, we take people on a
journey using jazz standards and
original music.”
Cohen, now a New Yorker,
will be joined by bass player
Russell Hall and drummer Evan
Sherman, who are regulars in
his trio.
“My band plays with the
concept of making individual,
unique moments, creating
something that maybe never
happened before and may never
happen again,” Cohen sats. “It’s
just a moment in time captured.”
Cohen’s parents started him
with the Suzuki method when
he was 3 years old and living in
Florida. Advanced lessons con-
tinued after the family moved to
New Jersey; he went on to earn
a bachelor’s degree from the
University of Miami Frost School
of Music and a master’s from the
Manhattan School of Music.
Performances have reached
from jazz clubs to the vast spaces
of prominent festivals, includ-
ing those based in Monterey,
Newport and Edinburgh. This
Labor Day weekend, he will join
the musicians performing at the
festival in Detroit, a city where he
has often appeared and instruct-
ed young people, many at Cass
Technical High School.
“My trio performed at the
Jerusalem Jazz Festival a year
ago,” he says. “That was a very
spiritual experience. I got a
chance to play in the holiest city
in the world. We went to the
Western Wall and prayed for
our music, families and lives. It
brought us together as a band
and fed into the music.”
With a commitment to jazz
pioneers and connecting them
to young musicians, Cohen
has launched “Masters Legacy
Series,” a set of recordings hon-
oring legendary jazz artists. He
is both pianist and producer of
the albums. The first volume
features drummer Jimmy Cobb,
and the second features bassist
Ron Carter.
“When I did research on Ron,
I learned his full name is Ronald
Levin Carter, and I asked how
he got a middle name that is
Jewish,” Cohen recalls. “He said
he came from a family of nine
children living in Ferndale, and
jn
they all went to a Jewish phar-
macist who would give them
what they needed even when
they couldn’t pay. They were so
grateful that they named Ron
after the pharmacist.
“I thought that was a great
story of different cultures, reli-
gions and races coming together
at a time not particularly known
for that in the 1930s. We thought
it would be awesome to record
a Hebrew prayer because of that
and put an arrangement togeth-
er titled “Hatzi Kaddish.”
With a great respect for musi-
cal standards, Cohen, 27 and
engaged, also composes. He has
perfect pitch, so he can hear
music in his head and hum it
into his phone recorder before
working on it at a piano.
When returning to Michigan
and the Gilmore, Cohen looks to
a concert format he considers
very special because of the inter-
est shown by the people partici-
pating and attending.
“The trio represents all the
styles of jazz,” he says. “It’s all per-
formed in a natural way because
we’ve internalized the music.” •
April 19 • 2018
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