Logging onto Zoom, pianist Emmet Cohen laughs that there’s “an emergency in jazzland every day.”
Between touring, livestreams, collaborations and a new record, he should know.
Thanks to the success of his Live From Emmet’s Place livestream series, Cohen has become one of the most recognizable figures in jazz today. Constantly touring, a festival mainstay, a connector between generations, part pianist, part ambassador, part host.
But beneath all that activity, Cohen says he’s really searching for something more introspective, what John Coltrane called “universal truth.”
His new album, also called Universal Truth, was inspired by the dual legacies of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, both of whom would have turned 100 this year.
He made it with his trio of the moment, bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Joe Farnsworth, as well as guest appearances by bassist Ron Carter and saxophonist George Coleman. Those two are reunited on record for the first time since they appeared on the 1964 album My Funny Valentine: Miles Davis In Concert.
While the inspiration behind the album is to pay tribute to Coltrane and Davis, the material is anything but recycled. Universal Truth nods to both artists through its repertoire, opening with “Budo,” associated with Miles Davis and Birth of the Cool, and closing with Coltrane’s “Blue Trane.”
But at the center of the piece is a three part suite of original music. That speaks to Cohen’s philosophy for the project. Instead of recreating Miles and Trane, Emmet says the real tribute is more personal.
“In order to celebrate Miles and Trane, you have to celebrate your own artistry,” he said.
In reflecting on Coltrane’s legacy, Cohen found himself returning again and again to a phrase Coltrane often used: universal truth.
“ John Coltrane would always talk about searching for a universal truth in his music or the universal truth,” he explained. “Everyone has something different, and I think that right there is the universal truth. It's like that we all have some belief and some love and some care for something in the world. And music is just the best tool we have to search deep within ourselves and pull that out.”
Part of that search for Cohen involves staying connected to the elders, the innovators and living links to jazz history music. Much of his career has been built on proximity to masters.
At 36, increasingly Emmet finds himself between generations, still learning from masters, while mentoring younger musicians through Emmet’s Place.
“ I find myself in the middle actually right now, where Emmett's Place has turned into a way to feature established musicians, but also a way to foster up and up-and-coming talent,” he said.
As for playing with his elders, Emmet says he discovered the balance between being respectful and taking risks.
“When you're with such a master in the studio, you wanna be reverent. And you want them to feel it,” he said. “But you also wanna push them and let them know you're not afraid to take some risk, and you're not afraid to go to that next place.”
When it came to recording with Ron Carter on Universal Truths that’s exactly what he did.
He went on, “Once a musician like Ron Carter realizes you're not afraid to go to that next place, he'll go there with you. He'll lead you there. And I think that happened on a number of occasions. We may have even gotten lost on a track, and that's part of the concept too. You go and off in the distance and get lost, and you find your way back together. Now, that's jazz to me.”
But even if you don’t know where you are, Emmet says the trick is to know when you are. Here, and now.
“You’ve gotta be right there in the present moment. That’s the real message from the masters,” he said.
In a centennial year devoted to celebrating Miles and Coltrane, Cohen’s message is surprisingly simple: the greatest tribute to the masters isn’t imitation. It’s staying open. Staying curious. Staying present.
