The Emmet Cohen Trio At Buffalo’s 'Art Of Jazz'

The Emmet Cohen Trio
Buffalo AKG Art Museum Auditorium
Art of Jazz
Buffalo, NY
May 19, 2025

The Emmet Cohen Trio closed the 2025 "Art of Jazz" Season with a high-energy performance featuring dynamic interplay and a dive into jazz history.

In 2019 Emmet Cohen received the American Pianists Association's Cole Porter Fellowship, accelerating a career trajectory that four years ago led "All About Jazz" writer Zachary Weg to comment, "[t]hirty years old and one of the finest piano players to emerge in decades..."

During the COVID lockdown, Cohen created "Live From Emmet's Place," in which he played concerts in his fifth floor, Harlem walkup. The popular web series highlights Cohen's genial, gregarious manner and has gone far to introduce a new generation to jazz.

Cohen is a keen jazz historian who has sought out its living masters. Indeed, Cohen's discography includes five installments in his with the late Jimmy Cobb, Ron Carter, the late Benny Golson, the late Albert Tootie Heath, George Coleman, and Houston Person.

Cohen's "Art of Jazz" set included his own compositions mixed with classics like Jelly Roll Morton's "The Crave" (1938) and Bud Powell's torch song, "I'll Keep Loving You" (1950).

Joe Farnsworth made a meal out of Broadway's "The Trolley Song," (from "Meet Me In St. Louis," 1944). He used sticks, a brush, and his hands to play all over his kit, including the hi-hat stand and the front of his bass drum. He ended with a locomotive rhythm calling out, "last stop! We're shuffling off to Buffalo!"

Cohen brought depth to "Henei Ma Tov" by muting the piano strings with his left hand while jazzing up an Israeli folk tune traditionally played at Shabbat.

Philip Norris was the youth in Cohen's intergenerational trio, displaying a rich bass tone and anchoring the interplay between Cohen and Farnsworth, who each gave the clear impression that they were prepared to go in any musical direction at any time.

Cohen the raconteur charmed the capacity crowd as he discussed his inspiration and offered respect for the century of musicians that created the foundation of his art.

The Emmet Cohen Trio closed the "Art of Jazz" with virtuosity and joy.

The "Art of Jazz" series began in 1999. Bruce Eaton booked some of jazz's finest musicians, with an emphasis on free jazz and the avant-garde.

Other memorable shows include the Dave Douglas Quintet (2015), Mary Halvorson (2017), Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan (2017), Carla Bley (2019), and The Bill Charlap Trio (2019).

The 2025 Art of Jazz season was programmed by JazzBuffalo's Tony Zambito whose inaugural season favored more mainstream jazz. This stylistic change has not compromised the high quality of the series, now in its third decade.

The 2025 Season was a success by any definition, featuring excellent performances and strong attendance. That said, Zambito begins each concert by taking the stage for extended remarks which, I respectfully suggest, add little to the concert experience.

On Sunday he talked to a captive audience for fifteen minutes (17% of the total showtime) and asked for applause seven times. He told us about "buying [his] first suit at Kleinhans" and pointed out his friends in the audience.

This created an unfortunate "Kiwanis Annual Dinner" energy, dragging down what was otherwise a sparkling performance by high-level professionals.

While I look forward to the 2026 Season, I hope the concerts will focus on the music rather than the promoter.

Set list: (1) Without A Song, (2) Lion Song, (3) The Crave (Jelly Roll Morton), (4) I'll Keep Loving You (Bud Powell), (5) The Trolley Song (Ralph Blane & Hugh Martin), (6) Henei Ma Tov (Hebrew traditional), (7) My Favorite Things (Rodgers & Hammerstein). ENCORE: Finger Buster.

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