Emmet Cohen: Emmet’s Place at the Top

Interview, From the Magazine, Emmet Cohen

By Allen Morrison I Nov. 13, 2025

“I consider myself lucky to be an extrovert,” said Cohen. “I like people and their stories.”
(Photo: Kevin Alexander)

Emmet Cohen grinned as he recalled a joke the comedian Alonzo Bodden told about him on the recent week-long “Journey of Jazz” cruise carrying passengers and performers from Vancouver to Los Angeles. Bodden is the ship’s resident comic. “Sometimes he’ll pick on me and say, ‘Emmet Cohen! You walk around this boat like you’re campaigning for office. You’ve got the gig, bro, you can relax!’”

The remark makes him laugh out loud, but it also points to one factor among many in Cohen’s steady rise to the top of the jazz world: his outgoing personality and how it has helped him build a strong personal bond with his fans.

“I’m just friendly, I think,” Cohen, 35, said recently on a video call from San Diego, where he was enjoying a rare week off from touring. “I try to take the time to talk to people, to look them in the eye, to learn their names. Especially if they love the music and they come frequently, I want to show my thanks by just being present and a human being. I know a lot of musicians describe themselves as introverts. I consider myself lucky to be an extrovert. I like people and their stories.”

A dazzlingly self-assured, inventive pianist in a world where such gifts often go unrewarded, Cohen reflected on how he got here. While touring the Midwest and other places in the late 2010s, mostly with longtime trio partners Kyle Poole and Russell Hall, he said, “I began to realize that … it’s really hard to get people to come to your performances. I played for so many empty rooms, just a few people here and there. We would travel all the way to a city and spend the resources, and, so many nights, they weren’t really listening or didn’t really care. Even if you’re playing great, nothing is guaranteed. Playing great, being professional, having degrees — it’s just the baseline.”

Closer to his Harlem apartment, he started a residency doing late nights at Dizzy’s, then another one playing B-3 at Smoke. Then, in 2020, the pandemic changed everything.

During New York City’s lockdown, out of desperation, he started Live from Emmet’s Place, webcasting concerts from his apartment on an iPhone with quarantine partners Poole and Hall.

“The power of the internet is undeniable. We did the first one on March 20, 2020. It got 40,000 views. It was a wake-up call. I looked in the mirror and asked myself, how far would I have to travel to reach 40,000 people in clubs and other venues? That would take us an entire year or more.”

The weekly Monday night Emmet’s Place shows (after the pandemic they became monthly) became an internet phenomenon, eventually earning tens of millions of views on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. To date, there have been more than 135 episodes, with guest performers that have included Sheila Jordan, Houston Person, Cyrille Aimee, Paquito D’Rivera, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Samara Joy and dozens of other jazz luminaries.

The program had an impact beyond the online world. Cohen’s concerts in far-flung places around the globe began selling out in advance. An online group of admirers of Emmet’s Place sprang up on Facebook with the moniker “TGIM” (Thank God it’s Monday). The group, organized by a fan named Rosemary Dawson, has more than 1,000 members, who not only watch the webcast together but also meet up to support live music at brick-and-mortar venues.

The webcast, especially in the early days of the pandemic, filled a real need for community. “Music is one of the best connectors and unifiers that the world has known. Jazz especially, in its improvisational nature and freedom, and its inclusiveness. It can include many different types of world music. There’s something for everyone. It’s almost like a religion, in a way. And the bandstand — the living room — became a temple. Everyone had their shoes off.”

As popular as Emmet’s Place became, there is, however, one group of people who were not fans: Cohen’s neighbors in his Harlem apartment building. “One of the most frequently asked questions I’ve had is, ‘What do the neighbors think?’ And the neighbors do not like the shows. We had a board meeting, and they asked me to ‘sunset’ the concerts. Fortunately, we’ve had an offer to continue our livestreams at Power Station,” the famed recording studio (formerly Avatar) in midtown Manhattan now operated by Berklee College of Music.

The finale of Live from Emmet’s Place in Cohen’s apartment took place Oct. 6.

“I was pretty upset when I first found out that we’d have to stop streaming,” he acknowledged. “But after some contemplation, I realized that it’s just an opportunity to take it to the next place, to evolve it to where it’s supposed to be.” He expects the new livestreams to be webcast monthly starting in December, when he hopes to have iconic saxophonist George Coleman as a guest.

From the beginning, Cohen’s approach has been to honor the elders of jazz. In addition to his three Mack Avenue albums — a fourth is on the way — Cohen in 2016 launched a series of independent releases he calls the Masters Legacy Series. Five volumes highlight his collaborations with Jimmy Cobb, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Albert “Tootie” Heath, George Coleman and Houston Person.

He plans to use the new livestream to refocus on nurturing the next generation of players. “We had so many fantastic, even legendary musicians playing with us,” he reflected. “But, to bring it into the future, I began to realize that it’s about the younger generation. We’ve started to incorporate younger musicians. That has to be an important part of our mission.”

“So, I’ll say to Spencer [Porter, Cohen’s assistant who serves as his operations director], ‘Who’s the hot young tenor player, or an exciting young trumpet player that people are talking about?’” A recent show featured three seasoned New York scene veterans, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Joe Farnsworth. “I thought it would be cool to add a couple of young musicians to that. So, we asked around and there’s a young trumpet player, 20 years old, going to Juilliard, named Mejedi Owusu. We messaged him, asked him to show up. He was excited. He’s 20 years old and he’d been watching us since he was 15.”

Cohen marvels that Emmet’s Place has spawned such distinct audiences — for instance, the TGIM group that includes many retirees who have the time to keep tabs on his career; “but also the students who feel like they’re getting a taste of New York from our shows and are learning to play based off of the content that we’re creating.”

Cohen, in his mid-30s, is clearly starting to grapple with the idea that, at least to the next generation, he himself represents the “elders.”

“As much as it is a community for jazz fans, it’s also an educational place for younger musicians all over the world,” he said. “It’s expanded — educationally, internationally, in ways that I would never even have imagined.

The new Emmet’s Place webcast will try to keep as much of the original pandemic-era ethos of creating a community around jazz as possible.

“The concept will be similar, except that it takes place in an actual recording studio. We’re gonna try to make it feel as homey as possible. I’ll probably take my shoes off.” DB