Emmet Harley Cohen (born May 25, 1990 in Miami, Florida) is an American pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator.
Early life and education
Emmet Cohen was born in Miami, Florida. He began studying piano at the age of three using the Suzuki method. Cohen was raised in Montclair, New Jersey and attended Montclair High School. While in high school, he was a part of The Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensemble where he met future collaborators Bryan Carter, Benny Benack III, Grace Kelly and Chad Lefkowitz-Brown. Cohen received a Bachelor of Music from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in 2012 and a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music in 2014.
According to Cohen, listening to and learning from other jazz artists has been a hallmark of his development from a young age. He frequented jazz clubs on his own and with his father, often talking with the artists or sitting in on sessions. Cohen learned to play the Hammond B-3 organ at Cecil's Jazz Club in West Orange, NJ, run by Cecil Brooks III, where he regularly played the B-3 during sessions led by saxophonist Bruce Williams.
Career
Cohen is primarily known for his work in jazz, although he also studied European art music (classical music) extensively earlier in his career, and this influence is apparent in his technique, occasional improvisational "quotes," and general technical mastery of the keyboard. He has performed with Christian McBride, Herlin Riley, Brian Lynch, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Joe Lovano, Eddie Henderson, and George Coleman. As a bandleader, Cohen tours with his band, the "Emmet Cohen Trio," most frequently with his close collaborators bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole.
In 2010, while still a student at Frost School of Music, Cohen recorded and self-released his debut album In the Element. In April 2011, then in his senior year, he won the Kathleen T. and Philip B. Phillips, M.D. Jazz Piano Competition, a nationally recognized jazz performance competition for undergraduate and graduate students at colleges and universities throughout the United States, sponsored by the University of West Florida in Pensacola.
In 2011, after placing third in the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition, held annually at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. Cohen and the two other finalists were invited to a meet and greet at the Oval Office on September 13, 2011 with President Barack Obama.
After graduating from the University of Miami in 2012, Cohen returned to the NY City area and completed a Master of Music (MM) in 2014 at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, NY, which he also attended on a full merit scholarship. While there, he released his second and third albums, Infinity (2013), recorded in Italy, and Questioned Answered (2014). Bryan Lynch in Jazz Times wrote, “Lots of young pianists have chops and energy, but Cohen also has an instinct for meaningful aesthetic form. His spilling runs and chiming resolutions are necessary to an overall design."
Since becoming a professional musician, Cohen has become a “high-in-demand jazz pianist and recording artist." He has performed at jazz clubs, festivals and music venues throughout the United States and in more than a dozen countries, including the SF Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival (Holland), Bern Jazz Festival (Switzerland). According to his website, live venues have included, among others, the Village Vanguard, the Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Birdland, Jazz Standard, and Lincoln Center's Rose Hall in New York City; the Kennedy Center in Washington DC; Ronnie Scott's in London; Jazzhaus Montmartre in Copenhagen; and the Cotton Club in Tokyo. For many years he was Hammond B-3 organist-in-residence, hosting a weekly late night session at the Smoke Jazz and Supper Club in New York City.
In 2019, Cohen received first-place in the American Pianist Awards, earning him the 2019 Cole Porter Fellowship from the American Pianists Association, which included a $50,000 grant, a recording contract with Mack Avenue Records, and a two-year Artist-in-Residence at the University of Indianapolis.
In October 2020, during the Coronavirus pandemic, with the help of his booking agency, Cohen “managed to revive a European tour originally scheduled for May and string together a dozen dates over 16 days, visiting Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria." According to Cohen, he set out to provide “something that the world is lacking—not only jazz, but joy."