EMMET COHEN TRIO
Multifaceted American jazz pianist and composer Emmet Cohen is one of his generation’s pivotal artistic figures. Downbeat praised the “nimble touch, measured stride and warm harmonic vocabulary” he employs to communicate with other musicians and audiences at “the deepest level of humanity and individuality.” Cohen plays with the command and passion of an artist fully devoted to his medium.
He presents jazz performance lectures through the YoungArts Foundation and Lincoln Center’s “Jazz for Young People” program. Cohen has appeared at the Monterey, Newport, North Sea, Bern, and Edinburgh jazz festivals, among others, and at many famous music venues, including Rose Hall and the Kennedy Center.
He has also played in legendary international nightspots, such as Birdland, the Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Jazzhaus Montmartre, Ronnie Scott’s and is the Hammond B-3 organist-in-residence at Harlem’s Smoke jazz club. Cohen holds jazz piano degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (M.M.) and the University of Miami (B.M.). In 2019 he won the American Pianists Association’s Cole Porter Fellowship and in 2011 the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition. He has performed or collaborated with Debbie Allen, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Lea DeLaria, Kurt Elling, Billy Hart, Jimmy Heath, Ali Jackson, Bill T. Jones, Brian Lynch, Christian McBride, and Herlin Riley. Learn more about Emmet at www.emmetcohen.com
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CHUCHITO VALDÉS
Chuchito Valdés, following in the footsteps of his famed father Chucho Valdés and grandfather Bebo Valdés, continues the legacy of great piano players from Cuba. With influences of Caribbean rhythms and jazz, Chuchito creates an exciting and energetic blend of spicy music that drives audiences wild. This piano master captivates with his sensitivity and drives excitement with his dynamic band.
He is recognized as a master of Cuban music including Son, Danzon, Cuban Timba and Guaguanco. He has also extensively studied classical music including harmony and composition. His original compositions and arrangements draw on classical harmonic and structural techniques. In his performances, Chuchito’s music draws on many styles including Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz, Bebop, Danzon, Cha-Cha-Cha, Son Montuno and much more.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Brian Leake was born November 9, 1934 in South Wales, Wales. He first played the clarinet in Mike Harris’ jazz band while studying architecture. After completing his military service, he moved to London, England where he worked full-time as a salesman. He was also active in the British trad jazz scene from the early 1960s and his first recordings were made in 1962 with Mick Mulligan and George Melly on At the Jazz Band Ball.
He also played with Dick Charlesworth on P&O ships and in 1964 he appeared on the BBC program Jazz Club with Charlesworth and His City Gents. By the end of the decade it was owned by Alan Elsdon & His Jazz Band. Leake led a mainstream jazz sextet called Sweet & Sour with the bassists Paul Bridge and Ron Rubin were members. He led the Al Fresco Marching Band, in which he played alto saxophone.
He was involved in recordings by The Nottingham Barbers’ Shop Quartet and singer Clinton Ford. Recordings of Leake’s BBC radio appearances from 1979 to 1990 appear on the album Benign Jazz. As a pub pianist, he appeared in an episode of the television series Nick Lewis, Chief Inspector .
Pianist, saxophonist, clarinetist Brian Leake, who composed traditional jazz, transitioned on November 10, 1992.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Warren Battiste was born on November 8, 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was taught to play the guitar by his father, a banjoist at Preservation Hall. He took four years of instruction at Greenwald Music School in his hometown. Performing at a number of jazz clubs on Bourbon Street, he appeared in the film Shy People with Jill Clayburgh and Barbara Hershey.
As an educator Battiste taught music at Wequachie High School, Essex County College and the Newark Art Center in Newark, New Jersey. He has performed with George Benson, The Platters, The Inkspots, Frank Foster, Barry Harris, Woody Shaw and Illinois Jacquet, among others. Releasing his debut album Street Jazz in 2001, recorded his sophomore release Just Friends three years later and then his album Quiet Storm in 2007.
Guitarist Warren Battiste, who also plays bass, banjo and piano, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Jazz from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and was selected as a Jazz All Star in 2000 from New Orleans Magazine.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terry Shannon was born on November 5, 1929 in London, England and started playing as a young child and was completely self-taught. He relied on gleaning from records rather than academic training. Never a good sight reader, he played local gigs with the likes of Les Condon but also worked in an office after leaving school. Finally in 1955 he gave up security for music and joined clarinetist Vic Ash, joining his quartet.
He first recorded with Jimmy Deucher and became a regular on Tempo records in the 1950s working with Dizzy Reece, Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes and Victor Feldman. His harmonic sense and his superb sense of time led him to become a favored pianist. Joining the Jazz Couriers in 1957 he stayed until the group broke up two years later, but continued working with Tubby’s various groups for the next five years. During this period he became a member of the Jazz Makers, had his own trio for a period and by 1965 was a part of the Keith Christie/Jimmy Deuchar Five.
Emerging from this period of performance as a consistent player, his career began to falter in the late Sixties through a combination of jazz vices and bitterness. A stint with the Phil Seamen Trio, leading his own trio, and a long illness eventually removed him from the jazz scene for years. He returned to jazz in the Eighties freelancing occasional gigs before moving to South Humberside in 1988. Moving back to London five years later, Shannon regularly played in various groups.
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