Label: Mack Avenue Records, 2021
Personnel - Emmet Cohen : piano; Russell Hall: bass; Kyle Poole: drums + Melissa Aldana: tenor saxophone; Marquis Hill: trumpet.
American pianist Emmet Cohen has cemented a favorable career with valuable collaborations - Jimmy Cobb, Albert 'Tootie' Heath and Ron Carter among them - and a deep taste for tradition. His new outing, Future Stride, revives the language, flair and energy of the vintage style known as stride jazz piano, which is adapted here to new settings. Cohen, who plays alongside bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole, also enlisted the aid of tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana and trumpeter Marquis Hill for a few numbers.
The album kicks off with a trio version of “Symphonic Raps”, a gleeful piano rag made popular by Louis Armstrong and the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra, which retains the playful melody and harmonic stimuli.
Other trio efforts include Fred Fisher’s “Dardanella”, whose smooth integration of foxtrot and jazz waltz is shaken by an unceremonious ragtime bounce before serenading again for the closing theme; “My Heart Stood Still”, a widely played Rogers/Hart standard enriched with melodic fragments of Parker's "Confirmation", some nuance in the rhythm and tradeoffs with the drummer; “Future Stride”, whose quicksilver rhythmic alternations are topped off with the tuneful provocations of the musical era that evokes plus some hard-bop feel in the manner of Art Blakey; and the Jimmy Van Heusen-penned ballad “Second Time Around”.
The hard-swinging “You Already Know” aims for higher flights with the quintet in full force. You’ll find hot solos from Aldana and Hill as well as stimulating exchanges between the soloists and Poole. This is the most vibrant piece on the album.
By comparison to the ever-shifting “Toast to Lo”, a vivid tribute to the late drummer Lawrence Leathers where each soloist works individually on top of a distinct tapestry, “Reflections at Dusk” drips peacefulness from its hushed line of thoughts. The pianist’s lyrical meanderings are on display here, also showing up on “Pitter Panther Patter”, a piano/bass duet that conjures up the Harlem-based stride of Duke Ellington, who wrote it, and Jimmy Blanton in the 1940s.
Employing a broad musical palette and developed technique, Cohen only sporadically transcends with a set of tunes that turned out pretty but not totally memorable.
Grade B-
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Reflections at Dusk ► 07 - Dardanella ► 08 - You Already Know