Podcast 792: A Conversation with Emmet Cohen

Emmet Cohen is a jazz musician who finds his future by mining the lessons of the jazz past. There is little about this pianist/composer's recordings and compositions that speaks of pure nostalgia. Instead, he and his tight trio find modern inspiration in the styles, performances, and artists of the jazz canon to create their take on modern music. The title of his first release on Mack Avenue Records, Future Stride, tells you much of what I mean. It features his versions of classic tunes recorded by Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum and Willie "The Lion" Smith, and songs written by Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington and Sammy Cahn. On one track he is digging into the stride piano tradition, and another playing more modern music with his longtime rhythm section partners, bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole, along with two of modern jazz's most progressive voices, trumpeter Marquis Hill and saxophonist Melissa Aldana. All in all, Future Stride is a portrait of an artist with one foot in the past, and another in the present, all the while facing forward to a jazz future, standing on the shoulders of giants. Podcast 792 is my conversation with Emmet, as we discuss the making of Future Stride, and he discusses his "Master Legacy Series" of albums with the likes of the Heath Brothers, Benny Golson and especially Ron Carter. We also talk about the Monday night webcasts he and his friends have been posting during the pandemic, and his work on the new album from his friend and collaborator Veronica Swift, entitled This Bitter Earth. Musical selections from Future Stride include "My Heart Stood Still" and "Toast to Lo," the latter a tribute to the late drummer Lawrence "Lo" Leathers, who died tragically in June 2019. From the Master Legacy Series, Volume 2 collaboration with Evan Sherman and Ron Carter comes Cohen's arrangement of the Jewish prayer "Hatzi Kaddish." There will be a webcast album release show for Future Stride can be found on Emmet's Facebook page and website on Monday evening, February 1 at 7:30 pm EST.