Emmet Cohen Featuring Jimmy Cobb

Cellar Live Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Emmet Cohen Featuring Jimmy Cobb

Jazz connoisseurs and/or senior citizens are most likely to be familiar with Jimmy Cobb. He was born back in 1929, which makes him a senior senior citizen; he also was the drummer in Miles Davis’ most famous group.

Emmet Cohen, a contemporary pianist, composer and teacher, has created a “Master  Legacy Series” that features famed jazz artists. This album, honoring Cobb, is his first release.

Cobb has a huge discography: During his more than 70 years of performing, he has worked and recorded with dozens of instrumental and vocal jazz greats. As one would expect, he also has performed hundreds of tunes from the Great American Songbook, along with countless classic jazz charts. This release is limited to 11 tracks, but they’re all choice. One, “Concerto for Cobb,” is a Cohen original.

The basic configuration is a trio: Cohen (piano), Yashushi Nakamura (bass) and Cobb (drums). Alto saxophonist Godwin Louis guests on two tracks. It’s an excellent unit.

Cohen is a comprehensive pianist; he covers all styles. He’s modern, but not a bopper; his touch is superb and gentle. Nakamura keeps a smooth steady beat, and also is a marvelous and inventive soloist. As for Cobb, he remains one of the tastiest swingers you’ve ever heard. He drives any group with which he plays, but never overplays.

This tribute to Cobb marks a solid beginning for Cohen’s Master Legacy Series. I look forward to more.

Adam Rongo: Tell Your Story

D Clef Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Tell Your Story

Saxophonist/composer Adam Rongo heads up a wonderfully swinging unit here: a group that brings back fond memories of the best bands that graced us when jazz truly was king. The basic unit is a sax/trombone/piano/bass/drum quintet, but eight guest artists are sprinkled throughout this album’s 11 track menu; as a result, the average combo size is closer to a septet. 

None of these players is well known ... yet. They’re mostly in their 20s and 30s and, although still under the radar at the moment, are well on the way to future stardom.

The core quintet features Rongo (sax), Michael Dease (trombone), Emmet Cohen (piano), Rodney Whitaker (bass) and Ulysses Owens Jr. (drums). Guitarist Randy Napoleon, vibraphonist Behn Gillece and baritone saxman Tony Lustig expand the instrumentalists; additionally, Anthony Stanco (trumpet), Tim Mayer (tenor sax), Miki Hayama (piano) and Evan Sherman (drums) sit in on some tracks. 

Three old standards — “Stardust,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “Your Mine, You” — are given lovely, up-to-date treatments. The rest of the tunes, written by members of the band and Johnny Green, Johnny Griffin and Jimmy Heath, are up-tempo swingers that bring the party to life. My favorite is a roaring rendition of Griffin’s “Fifty-Six”; if it doesn’t get you movin’ and groovin’, nothing will. 

This is the kind of stuff that used to move the audience off the dance floor, to gather around the band!

Great musicians and great arrangements: a wonderful release.

Emmet Cohen: In the Element

Bada Beep Music
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: In the Element

Emmet Cohen, who composes and plays both piano and Hammond B3 organ, is just 21 years old ... but his talent level is that of an artist twice his age. “Prodigy” is an accurate descriptor; he began to play the piano at age 3, and was studying classical music at the University Of Miami before he was 10. He then was accepted into the Manhattan School of Music’s pre-college division. He majored for seven years in classical piano but, as often is the case, his interest in jazz developed during that period; he soon was playing at top jazz clubs in New York City, and at jazz festivals around the world.

Cohen’s awards are numerous: He won a 2008 Downbeat Award as Outstanding Jazz Soloist, was a recipient of the 2009 NFAA Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship, took first place in a 2011 piano competition at the University of West Florida, and — that same year — was one of five finalists for the American Pianists Association’s Cole Porter Fellowship and came in third in the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition.

Cohen currently is working toward another music degree at Miami’s Frost School of Music. He also performs as leader or sideman at jazz venues in the NYC and Miami areas.

In the Element, Cohen’s first album, features his basic trio: bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Rodney Green, also in their 20s. Trumpeter Greg Gisbert appears as a guest artist. Six of the 10 tunes are jazz standards; Cohen wrote the rest. This mix allows one to judge how Cohen handles tunes that other artists and groups have performed, and permits an assessment of his compositional skills. He delivers in both cases. The stand-out standards, both ballads, are “For All We Know” and “Goodnight Heartache”; his arrangements match any prior performances I’ve heard.

These musicians demonstrate a maturity that is beyond their years; the only indicator of “youth” is reflected in a “solos for everyone” approach — including the drummer — on most tracks. But golly, that’s what turns young musicians on. And besides, they’re all more than competent soloists.

This is a very promising group, and we’ll be hearing a lot more from them.