Review: EMMET COHEN PRESENTS MILES & TRANE CENTENNIAL Leaves Birdland In Cheers

“I am freaking out right now!”

That was my friend, as the lights came up after the Emmet Cohen show at Birdland on January 13th.  I turned to look at the faces of all three of my guests; everyone was agog with wide eyes, big smiles, and incredulous heads shaking in disbelief.  Had we really seen what we thought we had?  Had we really heard what we thought we had?  It looked like we had, and we all enjoyed big reactions to the concert, but big in different ways.  

See, this is why I love live music so much.  This is why I love live performance of any kind so much.  This is why I love the club scene so much.  Whichever room you’re in, whatever kind of act you’re seeing, whatever the vibe of the outing, every person is going to have a different visceral reaction to the experience.  I’ve been going to Birdland for years, I’ve been listening to jazz music for even more years, but I never did both before while sitting at a table with three actual musicians.  I don’t play an instrument.  I have no schooling in the creation of music, or even in the study of music.  I just go by what I’ve learned from listening (to the musicians and to music experts like Will Friedwald) and by what I like.  But on this one occasion, at the table after the show, walking down the street after the evening was over, I got to listen to three people who pick up instruments and make music expound on what made them excited about seeing Emmet Cohen Presents Miles & Trane Centennial, and my musician friends (one pianist, one drummer, and one jazz-centric drummer) had a collective and mutual reaction to the performance that completely validated this dilettante's devotion to the craft and artistry of the great Emmet Cohen.

For their two performances at Birdland (7 and 9:30), the Emmet Cohen Quintet played nearly an hour and a half of music in celebration of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, both of whom would have been one hundred in 2026 (at least, the 7 pm show was that long).  Naturally enough, they didn’t just get up on the stage and play the original treatments of music as presented by Misters Coltrane and Davis, because where’s the fun in that?  People go to see an Emmet Cohen show to see what madness and magic he and his merry band of musicians will create, and the sold-out house at Birdland most certainly got that.  Each and every one of the selections presented had an association with Davis and Coltrane, in some way, even if it was just the theme of presenting original works, as was the case when Cohen and co. performed Emmet’s own composition “Vibe Provider,“ but more to the point is that the gentlemen of the quintet honored the legacies of their honorees by playing with absolute ferocity, which should, indeed, be the legacy of generations after generations of jazz musicians… ok, all musicians, but let’s be honest about it:  jazz is special and so are the artists who make it what it is.  

And what a team of artists this was.

Joining Mr. Cohen on the Birdland stage were four virtuosi in the form of Drummer Joe Farnsworth, Bassist Philip Norris, Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, and Saxist Tivon Pennicott.  Throughout the evening each of the men had soloist opportunities to display the attributes that garnered their admiration (and much audible encouragement) from the audience.  Not to make too fine a point of it, either, but the individual artistry of each proficient on the stage also captured the admiring glances and brilliant grins of appreciation from their colleagues - and this is one of the reasons that live music shows (especially instrumental) are so important.  We can all play an album, a CD, a download, or a Spotify stream of instrumental performances and enjoy them.  But being in the room and hearing the music live, while watching the musicians make it, is (in plainest parlance) mind-blowing.  The fury of the fingers as they flew over instruments was akin to watching an Olympic event.  The relationships that each artist has with their instruments were as visible as the relationships they have with each other.  And the ardor with which the band members observed and absorbed one another’s solos was the visual part of a musical play in which they all acted as characters, the biggest character of all being Emmet Cohen himself, whose facial expressions were a master class in letting go and living in the moment.  Factually speaking, there were times when it came down to a choice of what to watch - Emmet’s expressive face or his fleet fingers, Tivon’s wide eyes or his dancer-like posture, Joe’s grinning glances at Emmet or spinning drumsticks, Jeremy’s knowing smiles or the speed of the valves, Phillip’s hands up and down the fingerboard or the protection with which he cradles the instrument.  And with all these sights to see, in every fellow’s bubble of individuality, the greatest sight during the Davis/Coltrane play was the play itself - the playtime, to be exact.  Like school kids on the playground, athletes on the pitch, or siblings around the house, Cohen and co. are at play.  They are engaged in the acts of art and fun.  They are in constant communication with each other, using eyes and ears, expression both physical and facial, and the result was some of the most electrifying and exciting music a person is likely to hear, ever.

Now, about that music.   The Quintet only played eight songs, and that’s to be expected when each number performed is an opus.  It is nearly impossible to choose highlights in such a night of entertainment because the entire evening was like one enormous opera aria where the action builds and builds and builds until the final climactic moment.  Mr. Cohen managed to arrange the musical selections into an evening that was a steady climb to the top - each of the seven numbers bested the last one.  Starting the concert with “Two Bass Hit” was like setting off a starting pistol, all fire and excitement, and right proper instrumental jazz interpretation.  Whether working on the same level as a group, or with four of the gents pulling back to support a colleague in his solo, the opening number was so breathtaking that, honestly, they could have said,  “Thank you and good night” and the crowd would have gone home satisfied… but, no, the evening moved forward with the composition “Four” (equally as intricate and bombastic as “Two Bass Hit”) until, 20 minutes into the set, Mr. Cohen rose to speak to the audience about their purpose:  Miles Davis and John Coltrane.  While discussing their mission statement in, this, his first verbal exchange with the audience, Emmet started the evening off right by introducing the band members, which gave the remainder of the proceedings a personal touch.  We knew their names, we knew something about them, and we knew how much Emmet Cohen values them - we were invested.   Particularly enjoyable was the presentation of “I Fall In Love Too Easily” that featured, strongly, Mr. Pelt (whose couture for the evening was an original design by Birdland’s own Kwin Valencia) and the number’s follow-up, in which Cohen melded the Hebrew prayer “Henai Ma Tov” with Contrane’s version of “My Favorite Things,” a mashup that featured Norris to great advantage, with the inclusion of each additional craftsman further enhancing the experience.   It seems difficult to say or believe, but rarely before has the audience at Birdland been so silent during a performance.  And just when you thought the proceedings had reached peak performance, the team offered up a performance of “It’s Easy to Remember” that yielded but one word in this writer’s notes:  WOW.  Is it just the artistry of these five like minds (and talents) that made the Coltrane favored number a wow moment?  Or is it the eloquence of Mr. Cohen, whose thoughts on the subject of searching for meaning from one’s higher power (and the beauty in the music) was a poetic lead in to a performance in which Misters Pennicot and Farnsworth contributed so mightily with their proficiency?  It was all of it, from the opening notes of the evening, eighty minutes earlier, through to that final bow.  

About an hour into their set, the headliner and band leader was heard to observe that “In this music, you gain your influences and they’re always a part of who you are, but to really let your personality shine through them, that’s what this tribute is really about.”  And that sort of says in one sentence what these last few paragraphs have been, more volubly, describing.  Yes, The Emmet Cohen Quintet and their tribute to John Coltrane and Miles Davis were most definitely, fully and completely, worth freaking out over.  

Find great shows to see on the Birdland website HERE.

Visit the Emmet Cohen website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

 

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