Jazz pianist Emmet Cohen shot to popular prominence during the pandemic with Live From Emmet’s Place, spirited jam sessions streamed from his Harlem apartment that captivated millions hungry for the warmth and energy of live music. Modeled on Harlem rent parties, jazz-and-blues-fueled gatherings that helped people pay their bills in an earlier era, Live From Emmet’s Place seemed an intrinsically New York phenomenon.
Yet Cohen’s artistry and musical spirit were, in many ways, shaped in Miami by the Frost School of Music. As a young boy in Coral Gables, he took keyboard lessons at the Frost School before his family moved to New Jersey. He earned a bachelor’s in jazz piano at the Frost School, where he was mentored by Dean Shelton G. Berg, graduating in 2012.
Cohen, who brings Live From Emmet’s Place to Gusman Concert Hall on Monday, Jan. 27th, credits Berg and the Frost School for helping to shape him musically.
“Shelly is a masterful teacher,” Cohen said from his Harlem home. “He helps you find out who you truly are. I was so lucky to have that at that time in my life. It was always about connecting to the emotional aspect of music, digging deep, trying to find feeling. Those kinds of explorations lead to artistry more than any technique. That’s what lasts forever.”
Cohen first brought Emmet’s Place to the Frost School a year ago. On Monday Berg will once again be a star guest, joining GRAMMY-winning vocalist Catherine Russell, acclaimed trumpeter Sean Jones, and other stellar musicians. The concert is sold out, but can be seen live via Windowcast on the Knight Center for Music Innovation plaza.
Berg is thrilled to re-connect musically with Cohen. “There’s such a great rapport,” he says. “I have a few former students I can have that experience with at that level, and it’s a total joy and a great source of pride to me.”
Cohen was a child prodigy who began studying piano at age three. His family moved to New Jersey when Cohen was 10, and he studied classical piano in a pre-college program at the renowned Manhattan School of Music. But he attended a regular public high school, and was drawn to jazz early on.
“I love the freedom and flexibility of jazz,” Cohen says. “I love that it’s community-based music, that you can create with other musicians. Jazz celebrates imperfection and humanity. It’s a much better fit for my personality.”
He met Berg at Jazz Band of America, a festival for top high school musicians where Berg was leading Cohen’s ensemble. The veteran teacher instantly recognized the young pianist’s prowess. “He had immense talent, great stage presence, he was hungry to learn,” says Berg. But he also believed he could help Cohen focus his formidable abilities on his artistry.
“Because you’ve precociously learned to play with prodigious technique, and you’ve absorbed all these styles, people get wowed by the fact that you can do all these things,” says Berg. “You need to understand that the things you do are in service to the music. To understand that you learned all those things in order to forget about them when you’re playing and communicate deep things about the human experience. I told Emmet that and he said “how do I get that?” and I said “come to the Frost School of Music and study with me”.”
In Miami Cohen devoted himself to his new mission. “I locked myself in a practice room every night for hours to develop a sound on the piano and learn as much about music and myself as possible,” he says. Berg was his guide, bringing Cohen to a pivotal moment his senior year, shortly before he became a finalist in the elite 2011 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition.
“From day one we talked about a moment I was waiting for, the moment he played one note and I started to cry,” Berg says. “It happens when you fully trust your intent and allow yourself to be fully taken over by your understanding of what you want to convey and the story you want to tell about the music you’re playing. There were many moments he turned around wondering if that was the moment, and I’d be like “uh-uh.” The moment it happened he didn’t have to wonder. He just walked over and gave me a hug. Because I was crying.”
Cohen moved back to New York the day after he graduated and threw himself into the jazz scene. He was quickly successful, playing with the likes of Kurt Elling and bassist and bandleader Christian McBride, who calls Cohen “one of the most dynamic young musicians on the scene today.” In 2019 he won the American Pianists Awards, an honor that is a kind of anointment for jazz pianists. He has played at a long list of major jazz festivals and venues, and is a Downbeat magazine favorite, regularly appearing in the jazz bible’s annual Critics and Readers Polls.
Berg says Cohen’s drive and gregariousness have also been key to his success, whether connecting with famous artists as a student performer on The Jazz Cruise where Berg is artistic director, or taking his trio on the road in a car, signing up audience members for his email list. “Everywhere Emmet goes he’s learning about people, staying in touch, making friends,” Berg says. “It’s natural to him. When the pandemic hit he had this huge list of people who were his extended family. So he was able to go online, create these live concerts, give people an opportunity to pay for it. He showed the jazz world how to do that.”
Cohen remains centered on jazz’s legacy of emotional connection and community creativity. A defining project for him is producing the Masters Legacy Series, interviews and recordings with jazz elders like Jimmy Cobb, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Tootie Heath, and George Coleman.
“Jazz is an oral tradition,” says Cohen. “I wanted the information not just from the academic side, but from the people who could pass it down directly.”
His many rave reviews often cite his warmth, wit and heart. “Cohen’s trio displayed tremendous technical skill and daring, yet never lost its way emotionally,” Michael Barris wrote in Downbeat. “Gifted jazz players occasionally can become so focused on pyrotechnical displays that they lose track of a song’s emotional heart, but at this show, supreme instrumental command enhanced the adventurous feeling.”
That freewheeling, humanistic spirit helped Cohen find new opportunity in the pandemic. In March of 2020 he and his trio returned to New York from a Canadian show to find a year’s worth of gigs canceled. A promotor called offering to pay their concert fee if they’d do something online. With no venues open, they played in Cohen’s apartment. “We all put on a suit and tie and did what we knew how to do best,” Cohen says. “We went live on Facebook on my phone. You could barely hear it.” They got 40,000 views. Millions more have watched, live and streaming, the over 100 Emmet’s Place shows Cohen has hosted – all in his apartment – since then.
“What I learned is it wasn’t about the music, but a place to come together,” Cohen says. “At a time that was so uncertain, people wanted to feel part of something.”
He is deeply gratified to bring that sense of musical community to the Frost School. “There’s no greater feeling than finding the meaning in what you do,” Cohen says. “One of the most wonderful things for me is to connect with the city where I’m from, and to bring where I am now to there. To connect with Shelly and include him in the thing I created, to be a part of what he created. I do not take those moments for granted.”
See the sold out Emmet’s Place Miami Live concert, at 7:30pm on Monday, Jan. 27th, for free in HD video and audio via Windowcast at the outdoor plaza of the Knight Center for Music Innovation, 5513 San Amaro Dr, Coral Gables.
Emmet’s Place Miami Live is sponsored by Michael R. Ragan and Savage Content.
