Emmet Cohen makes music for the people. That isn’t to say he panders or dumbs it down. Cohen is simply a pianist who puts connection at the center of his performance ethic, whether he’s burning down the bandstand, lighting up a livestream, or laying it down in the studio. He has also made a point of seeking out his jazz elders and welcoming in younger fans, all with a spirit of upbeat discovery. (There’s a reason DownBeat’s July cover story bears the headline “Emmet Cohen: Messenger of Joy.”) Cohen recently came through Philadelphia with his tour “Miles and Coltrane at 100,” and stopped by WRTI for a lively chat. Along with saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, he also performed the title suite from his new album, Universal Truth.
Watch that performance on our YouTube channel, where you can also see this entire interview.
Interview Highlights
On what “universal truth” means to him
I think universal truth to me is about asking questions. That's what John Coltrane was going for — “What are the bigger questions in life? What does this all mean? How can I connect what I'm doing physically on this earth to whatever the higher power is, whatever the unity is, whatever's out there?” And I think that's the thing I glean from all the jazz masters. They've lived this whole life and played with all these people, and part of the continuum is asking those questions like, “Why are we here?” ... The universal truth is that everything is up to whatever your perception is, and it's about asking those questions — what is it all about? Who is this all for? What's actually important? These are questions we have to ask ourselves every day, and that exists in the music too. The more I think about universal truth, it's like — what can I do for somebody else? What can I do for others, to brighten their experience here, and then how does that shine back on me? I hear that in the work of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, who we're celebrating, but I also hear it in a lot of the great artists who changed the scope of American art, or world history.
On AI, and keeping humanity at the center
I'm really concerned about it. I've dedicated a lot of time in the last year or so to seeing how it can help what we do — not musically, maybe, but all the things around it. There are tools everyone's going to be using, and if you're not using them, it's gonna be really hard to keep up, whether it's the media side or the social media side. And also, this human connection, this live music thing, is gonna be more important than ever. Figuring out how to keep that going in the most powerful way, whether it's online or in person, with these connections we've been making all over the internet, on the radio, any of these places. We just have to remember that comes first, and the things surrounding humanity are gonna be even more sought after. So use the tools to help us keep that humanity. That's the main thing. But it's easier than ever to build a website, or write a bio. We were sitting backstage with Jeremy Pelt the other night, and I said, “Mr. Pelt, you ever use AI for anything?” He said, “I've never used it.” And I just opened Claude and asked it to take everything from the internet that it knows about Jeremy Pelt and create a two-paragraph bio as if he was going to be appearing at Carnegie Hall. And he was astonished — he was like, “I needed a new bio.” Those kinds of things can help an independent artist like that, whereas before they might have had to hire someone and spend a week doing it. But I think the world is readjusting and evolving, and we're evolving with it in the best way we know how, and trying to preserve this thing.
On what actually lasts
The things that last are those unforgettable moments, I think — those feelings. You know, they say you never remember exactly what someone said, but you remember how they made you feel. When I used to study with my mentor, Shelly Berg, he'd always say, “The best compliment you can get as a musician is someone coming up to you afterwards and saying, ‘When you guys did that in the music, I'll remember that forever. That'll stick with me forever. That made me think of such and such in my life, and I hadn't thought of that in so many years.’” Those kinds of things have a deeper connection — it's really about connection. Those are the things that last through generations. Nobody knows their great-grandparents' names anymore, hardly, these days, right? But if you can name all four of your great-grandparents' names, you win some kind of award. Whatever they stood for is passed down through your grandparents and your parents, and lives in you, and I think that's important to remember. So whatever you do here is gonna affect people for generations to come.
On what “modern” really means
By spending time with the jazz masters — playing with Benny Golson, he might be on stage playing his compositions, then he plays “Now's the Time” by Charlie Parker, in confirmation. Then I play with Jimmy Cobb, and he wants to play “Autumn Leaves” and “On Green Dolphin Street.” Then I play with Ron Carter, and he wants to play an F blues, right down the middle. And then you go to a jazz school curriculum, and they're like, “Well, you need to take composition and arranging, and we want you to invert this thing.” ... So — do people want to actually hear a chromatic approach to improvisation after they've worked five days, nine to six, and this is their Friday night? Or do they want to hear something they might recognize, but treated in a very current, modern way? Modern is the operative word here. What is modern? My argument is that modern is genius — you hear Art Tatum or Thelonious Monk, that sounds modern to me. It can mean genius, or everlasting, or it can just mean right now — whatever we're doing is gonna be modern. So that's a word that's been hijacked a little bit too. But I think there's been a lot of permission given, and it sprouted up in the '90s too, with the young lions — Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Brad Mehldau, Roy Hargrove, and all that explosion from that time. People were really invigorated by that, and a lot of it's cyclical. But I think we're in a time now where people are really appreciating the feeling of swing, and it's okay to start there with something that may have been perceived as obvious before. But now, with a new light shone on it, it's like — wow, it's actually really hard to just play a song and make it come alive, and be free on it, and treat it in a modern context even though it's still swinging.
