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Emmet Cohen: Masters Legacy Series Volume 4: Emmet Cohen Featuring George Coleman

By Mike Jurkovic
January 30, 2020
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Emmet Cohen: Masters Legacy Series Volume 4: Emmet Cohen Featuring George Coleman

So here we are, nearly knocking on the door to February 2020, and we're listening to the second of

Emmet Cohen

piano
b.1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Emmet Cohen's two entrancing, late 2019 releases: Masters Legacy Series Vol. 4 Emmet Cohen featuring George Coleman—a good harbinger for the new year. And heaven knows we could use a boatload of good harbingers these exhausting days.

Pianist/prodigy Emmet Cohen loves history. Jazz history especially. Sax legend

George Coleman

saxophone, tenor
b.1935

" data-original-title="" title="">George Coleman's ever reliable and responsive affinity to the soul of things He has has made himself—as if, at age 84, he needs any validation—integral to the canon, standing beside

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis on the seminal Seven Steps to Heaven (Columbia, 1963); or sitting in on

Herbie Hancock

piano
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Herbie Hancock's heralded Maiden Voyage (Blue Note, 1965) and co-igniting the fierce freedom fire that burns Eastern Rebellion Vol. 1 (Timeless, 1975) with

Cedar Walton

piano
1934 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Cedar Walton,

Sam Jones

bass, acoustic
1924 - 1981

" data-original-title="" title="">Sam Jones and

Billy Higgins

drums
1936 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Higgins.

This bold, proclamatory set—recorded live at Yamaha Artists Services in NYC—opens with nothing less than

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk's groove defining "Trinkle Trinkle," its left hand dominant strides a challenge to all but the players on this particularly fine session. The music has a popping swing, courtesy of drummer

Bryan Carter

drums
b.1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Bryan Carter and bassist

Russell Hall

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Russell Hall laying it all out for Cohen's cascades and Coleman's bright, cajoling interjections. A prolific, inspired composer, Cohen's lone original, "For Big G," sounds right in place among the set's keenly curated standards, blues, and ballads, its humorous, riveting set of acrobatics invoking

McCoy Tyner

piano
1938 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">McCoy Tyner and

Erroll Garner

piano
1921 - 1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Erroll Garner.

The album then moves thoughtfully into inspired lounge mode. For at the heart of Jimmy McHugh's "Don't Blame Me"—a tune covered by everyone from

Yusef Lateef

woodwinds
1920 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Yusef Lateef to

Ethel Waters

vocals
1896 - 1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Ethel Waters—is a gentle pool of cocktail grace and lyricism taken at a most leisurely tempo, thereby allowing the beauty of the notes and their performance to baptize the listener in its tender 9 1/2 minutes. After what some might consider a somewhat standard take of "On Green Dolphin Street," (and what really is standard in these guys hands?) another Monk. This time it is the ascendent waltz "Ugly Beauty," followed by the quiet chromaticism of Bill Carey and Carl Fischer's "You've Changed," another of those songs covering the grand spectrum from

Sarah Vaughan

vocals
1924 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Sarah Vaughan to

Dexter Gordon

saxophone, tenor
1923 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Dexter Gordon. "Db Blues" is one of those rolling, triumphant, many tinted blues that signals the set's closer.

It is a fool's folly and mad errand to compare one artistic statement to or with any another. And since it's been scientifically proven that all too many engage in such daily discourse, let us not allow that to happen here. Let's just say with deep sincerity that with Masters Legacy Series Vol. 4 Emmet Cohen featuring George Coleman , Cohen has produced a stellar successor to a very fine tradition into which he has thankfully inserted himself.

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Track Listing

Trinkle Trinkle; I Surrender Dear; For Big G; Don't Blame Me; On Green Dolphin Street; Ugly Beauty; Triste; You've Changed; Db Blues.

Personnel

Emmet Cohen

piano

Emmet Cohen: piano; George Coeman: tenor saxophone; Russell Hall: bass; Bryan Carter: drums.

Album information

Title: Masters Legacy Series Volume 4: Emmet Cohen Featuring George Coleman | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: Self Produced

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