| Jazz |
Summary : Emmet Cohen delivers one of 2026’s defining jazz albums, blending the influence of Miles Davis and John Coltrane with modern energy, emotional intelligence and fearless reinvention.
Emmet Cohen Reimagines Jazz Tradition With Vision, Joy and Spiritual Depth
I still remember the first time I saw the name Emmet Cohen on an album cover. It must have been sometime between late 2011 and early 2012. I was browsing through new jazz releases late at night, the kind of quiet moment every serious listener knows well, when curiosity often leads to unexpected discoveries. The album was In the Element. At first glance, nothing announced that this young pianist would eventually become one of the defining musicians of his generation. Yet there was already something intriguing in the presentation, a confidence that suggested a deeper artistic vision waiting beneath the surface. Looking back now, the trajectory feels almost inevitable.
Over the past several years, Cohen has followed a path that in some ways recalls the role David Sanborn once played for an earlier generation. Through his widely viewed YouTube sessions and live streamed performances featuring an ever-changing circle of guests, singers and instrumentalists alike, Cohen has cultivated more than an audience. He has built a community. The atmosphere surrounding his music is rarely solemn or self conscious. Instead, it radiates joy, spontaneity and generosity. There is always an unmistakable reverence for the tradition, but never the suffocating weight of nostalgia. His work honors the past while remaining firmly rooted in the present, creating a style that feels alive, conversational and deeply human.
What makes Cohen particularly fascinating is the way he has helped reshape the relationship between jazz and modern audiences. At a time when many younger listeners encounter music first through screens rather than concert halls, Cohen instinctively understood that accessibility did not have to mean compromise. His online performances, often filmed with an intimacy that places viewers almost inside the room with the musicians, have introduced thousands of younger listeners to jazz without diluting the sophistication of the art form itself. In many ways, he has succeeded where institutions sometimes fail. He has made jazz feel welcoming again. Not simplified, not commercialized, but open and alive.
That approach has also made him one of the flagship artists of Mack Avenue Music Group, a label to which he has remained fiercely loyal throughout his rise. His acclaimed Masters Legacy Series, recorded alongside towering figures such as Ron Carter, George Coleman, Jimmy Cobb, Benny Golson, Albert “Tootie” Heath and Houston Person, quickly established Cohen as far more than a gifted technician. He became a bridge between generations, a musician capable of drawing wisdom from jazz elders while speaking fluently to younger listeners discovering the music for the first time. This latest album only reinforces what has become increasingly obvious: Emmet Cohen is no longer an emerging artist. He is now essential.
And then there is the personnel assembled for this recording. On bass, none other than Ron Carter himself, a living monument in jazz history whose résumé includes collaborations with Miles Davis and virtually every major figure of the modern era. What remains remarkable about Carter is not simply his longevity, but the enthusiasm he continues to show toward younger musicians. Here, he sounds entirely engaged, playing with the same elegance, curiosity and quiet authority that have defined his own legendary recordings for decades.
On trumpet, Cohen turns to Jeremy Pelt, one of the most compelling voices of his generation. Pelt has long possessed a tone and musical identity that are instantly recognizable, which is precisely why this project succeeds in avoiding the trap that haunts so many tribute albums. When Cohen approaches “My Funny Valentine,” he has no interest in serving up a reheated standard polished for sentimental effect. Instead, the piece is reimagined with intelligence and restraint, transformed into something that feels unexpectedly fresh. The arrangement invites listeners to hear the composition again rather than merely remember it.
The timing of the project also carries symbolic weight. The year 2026 marks the centennial of the births of both Miles Davis and John Coltrane, two figures whose influence on the history of jazz is impossible to overstate. For Cohen, celebrating these artists was not simply an artistic exercise but a personal necessity. Yet he also understood that the jazz world would inevitably be flooded with commemorative projects, many of them content to recycle familiar gestures and predictable reverence. Cohen wanted something different. He recognized that his own musical journey placed him in a unique position to explore what truly made Davis and Coltrane revolutionary.
The contrast between those two giants remains one of the defining tensions in modern jazz history. Miles Davis constantly reinvented the shape of jazz itself, moving restlessly from bebop to modal experimentation, from electric fusion to minimalist abstraction. John Coltrane, by contrast, pursued transcendence with almost spiritual intensity, searching through harmony and improvisation for something universal and eternal. Cohen’s achievement lies in the fact that he seems to understand both impulses simultaneously. Like Davis, he values reinvention and sonic architecture. Like Coltrane, he approaches music as an emotional and spiritual search rather than mere performance.
Whenever he speaks about music, Cohen does so with remarkable openness and enthusiasm. Reflecting on his studies of Coltrane, he has repeatedly returned to one phrase in particular: “Universal Truth.”
“As I continued studying John Coltrane and reading about his philosophy,” Cohen explained, “that phrase kept appearing again and again. Universal Truth. When Trane spoke about music and purpose, he was always searching for that truth. To me, it represents a higher power, his personal understanding of God, or perhaps that connection to the Source that links every living being on Earth.”
That spiritual dimension runs throughout the album. This is music shaped by passion, not only passion for jazz itself but for the possibilities hidden inside its language. Cohen understands how to reshape tradition without diminishing it, how to bend familiar forms into something elegant and contemporary. The influence of Miles Davis is certainly present throughout the record, in the architecture of the arrangements, in the pacing, in the sense of atmosphere and space. Yet imitation is never the goal. Choosing Jeremy Pelt as trumpeter makes that clear immediately. Pelt’s voice is far too distinctive for hollow replication, and Cohen is far too intelligent an artist to pursue nostalgia for its own sake.
The deeper one listens, the clearer it becomes that this album may well stand among the defining jazz recordings of 2026. Cohen continues to evolve, and his audience evolves alongside him. Perhaps the secret is simpler than critics often imagine. Remain authentic. Work relentlessly. Ignore trends and passing fashions. Build your own road with patience and conviction.
At a moment when much of contemporary culture seems obsessed with speed, novelty and constant reinvention, Emmet Cohen offers something increasingly rare: an artist who understands that true innovation begins with knowing exactly where you come from, and having the courage to carry that history forward without ever becoming trapped inside it.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, May 29th, 2026
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Musicians :
Emmet Cohen: Piano (All)
Joe Farnsworth: Drums (All)
Yasushi Nakamura: Bass (1, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Ron Carter: Bass (2, 3, 4)
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
George Coleman: Tenor Saxophone (3, 8)
Tivon Pennicott: Tenor Saxophone (5, 6, 7, 8)
Track Listing :
- Budo 4:10
- Well You Needn’t 5:32
- My Funny Valentine 6:09
- Gingerbread Boy 4:22
- I. Eternal Glimpse 5:28
- II. Compassion 5:31
- III. Universal Truth 6:22
- Blue Train 4:37
Producers: Emmet Cohen, Christian Wiggs
Associate Producer: Michael Ragan
Production Manager: Spencer Cole Porter
Recorded at Sear Sound in NY on October 5, 2025
Recording Engineer: Chris Allen
Assistant Engineer: Steven Sacco
Mixed and Mastered at Bass Hit Studios in NY
Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Dave Darlington
All songs arranged by Emmet Cohen
Budo
Miles Davis, Earl Bud Powell • Beechwood Music Corporation/ Sony Music Publishing (BMI)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Yasushi Nakamura: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
Well You Needn’t
Thelonious Sphere Monk • Primary Wave 3 Songs/ Songs Of Universal, Inc. (BMI)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Ron Carter: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet
My Funny Valentine
Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers • Chappell-Co. Inc./ Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Williamson Music Co./ Concord Music Group (ASCAP)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Ron Carter: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
George Coleman: Tenor Saxophone
Gingerbread Boy
Jimmy Heath • M J Q Music, Inc./ Hal Leonard Music Corp. (BMI)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Ron Carter: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet
I. Eternal Glimpse
Emmet Cohen • Eco System (BMI)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Yasushi Nakamura: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet
Tivon Pennicott: Tenor Saxophone
II. Compassion
Emmet Cohen • Eco System (BMI)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Yasushi Nakamura: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet
Tivon Pennicott: Tenor Saxophone
III. Universal Truth
Emmet Cohen • Eco System (BMI)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Yasushi Nakamura: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet
Tivon Pennicott: Tenor Saxophone
Blue Train
John Coltrane • Jowcol Music/ Shukat Arrow Hafer Weber & Herbsman LLP (BMI)
Emmet Cohen: Piano
Yasushi Nakamura: Bass
Joe Farnsworth: Drums
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet
Tivon Pennicott: Tenor Saxophone
George Coleman: Tenor Saxophone
Special thanks to Kelvin Grant, Alex Weitz, and Michael R. Ragan.
℗© 2026 Mack Avenue Records. All Rights Reserved