Adrian Cohen

• Adrian's Bio
• Upcoming Performances
• Current News (updated 2.15.07)
• Reviews & Press
• CONTACT ADRIAN

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Adrian voted
"Best Jazz Musician"
in 2006 Metroland Best Of issue!

"The supple trio led by this pianist is only the tip of the iceberg. Coming up through the traditions (everything from bop and swing to Latin and assorted modern hybrids), he’s developed into a formidable composer as well. Based in the Capital Region, the area is elevated by his presence."

Thanks to everyone at Metroland for the kind words!

Performance Schedule
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Check out The Adrian Cohen Trio CD "Standardized"

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Here's what AllAboutJazz.com has to say about "Standardized"

"Standardized is the debut recording by the Adrian Cohen Trio, and as the title suggests, it consists entirely of standards. In lesser hands, such a program might sound generic. Fortunately, pianist/leader Adrian Cohen is an extraordinary musician possessed of an equally impressive musical imagination. While his light touch reflects the influence of Bill Evans, Cohen is an artist well on his way to developing a unique voice on his instrument. Cohen has a marvelous sense of time and an almost conversational tone. His playing is confident and swinging, and it is clear that he will go far..."
Click here for the whole review...

NEWS!
2/15/07

NEW CD IN THE WORKS

Hi everyone...I've been working on a few different projects lately that i'm excited about.

First... i've been in the studio FINALLY working on a new cd after a few years (4 to be exact!). It's all original stuff and will be in trio, quartet, and quintet formats... although we've got some initial tracks recorded it will be a few months until i can get everything recorded due to scheduling... look for the cd sometime in spring 2008!

2nd... i'm developing a pretty slick method for teaching lessons online, opening up my studio pretty much to anyone with a broadband internet connection! It's going to take a little while to work out the kinks, but so far everything seems to be working fine and i should be offering live interactive online lessons via webcam in couple of months!

and finally...

KONICHIWA, JAPAN!

I'm off for an exploratory trip to Japan at the end of march with my brother Jordan. I'll be doing a gig in support of my last cd that has been selling pretty well over there and then checking out the scene in Tokyo... we're making a side trip to Kyoto, the old capital of Japan and one of the cities that escaped the fires of the late 16th century, and the ravages of world war II...should be a wild time!

I've got all sorts of interesting people playing my ongoing residency at Justin's and I'm doing some other gigs around the area. Click HERE to check out the schedule...

Past news:

Herstory, a series of 2 minute radio segments that I composed music for, and which was produced by Mary Darcy of WAMC National Productions for her nationally syndicated radio program 51%, won a Gracie Allen award for best special program from American Women in Radio and Television!

11/04

...I'm just finishing up recording music that is being used for "Herstory", a series of radio shorts (2 minutes each) about super cool women in history. All of the stories are fascinating, and some are incredible! The series is being produced by Mary Darcy, who hosts and co-produces the nationally syndicated show about women, "51 percent". The series is being narrated by actress Kate Mulgrew, who played Captain Janeway in the TV show "Star Trek: Voyager", and most recently can be seen as Kathern Hepburn in the stage production of "Tea at 5" which is touring nationally.

• The Adrian Cohen Trio opened up for internationally acclaimed singer K.D. Lang on Saturday October 16th at the Palace Theater in Albany NY. We were lucky enough to have a great crowd of 2,000+ people who really listened to the music, and of course K.D. was amazing! We hung out with the band after sound check, which was a real treat. There were also several members of the Albany Symphony, who were also very cool. Special thanks to the excellent bassist (and exceptional dancer!) Otto Gardiner for filling in for Mike DelPrete.

• The Patneaude/Cohen Quartet opened for the Terence Blanchard Sextet Friday March 5th at The Egg in Albany! It was great to meet Blanchard and his band, and we had a great time playing at The Egg. Here is what The Schenectady Gazette had to say about our performance:

"...The adrian cohen/brian patneaude quartet, mainstays at justin's, the van dyck and other area venues, proved they're ready for prime time on any stage with a too-short set of ingenious originals they played with impressive skill and spirit.

The tricky time changes of cohen's episodic "Red Rug," the easy charm of his waltz-time ballard "Last Days," Patneaude's fast arpeggios in his own "Release" and the stop-and-go be-bop of Patneaude's "Is This It" demanded precise playing and got it. But the quartet also had engaging confidence that seemed to grow as each solo earned appreciative applause. "We were going to be in the audience (for Blanchard) anyway," said cohen, delighted to get in free and to open the show.

Drummer Danny Whelchel's backbeat breakout in "Is This It" was like a tasty dessert while bassist Michael DelPrete was solidly skillful as he was self-effacing.
Terrance Blanchard's Sextet and the cohen/Patneaude Quartet nearly filled the egg's sywer theater, at $24 a ticket..."

• Read our review from The Berkshire Eagle

• Read the 9.28.03 Times Union
feature on Adrian

About Adrian

Adrian Cohen has been voted Best Pianist by Upstate New York's Metroland Magazine two years consecutively (2000-2001), and The Adrian Cohen Quartet was voted Best Jazz Ensemble by the same magazine in 2002 and 2005.
Adrian was recently voted “Best Jazz Musician” by the same publication for their 2006 Best Of issue.

Cohen has composed music for radio and television including clients such as WHMT TV (PBS) and WAMC (NPR), and can be heard on the soundtrack for the Miramax film "The Castle". He has opened for artists such as Terence Blanchard, Larry Coryell, and K.D. Lang, and plays regularly with the Charles Neville Quartet.

Adrian's theater credits include two productions of "Always...Patsy Cline" for Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany NY, and a month long stint serving as musical director/pianist/conductor for the same show at the historic Lyceum Theater in Arrowrock, Missouri.
Cohen has also been pianist for productions of "Forever Plaid" and "The Song Of Singapore" (pianist/conductor), at Capital Repertory Theater.

Adrian currently maintains a busy roster of private students and performs regularly with various incarnations of The Adrian Cohen Group as well as freelancing with several other regional artists as pianist/keyboardist in a variety of styles. He is currently writing and recording music for a new CD to be released sometime in late 2007/early 2008.

Adrian's musical education began early on, listening to records from his parent's extensive music collection, and investigating the many instruments in the Cohen household. Occasionally he would accompany his parents to his jazz-bassist father Norman's gigs (sometimes on school nights!) in and around Buffalo, N.Y. Observing his father (who had started out playing with the likes of Steve Gadd, Chuck Mangione, Tony Levin, and several other now very successful musicians from Rochester N.Y.) and the other musicians on these gigs was very inspirational. Going out to brunch after the gig and taking the next day off from school really sealed the deal for Adrian. Music was not only interesting and satisfying. It was cool !

Adrian began formal instrumental studies in elementary school with the Clarinet and Alto Saxophone. He would often play by ear, pretending to read the sheet music but actually playing from memory, improvising lines, or harmonizing melodies. This approach did not gain Adrian much popularity with his teachers, but did instill a love of performing in him. After several disappointing experiences with public school music programs, Adrian got his hands on an electronic keyboard and adopted a home-music-school philosophy. He learned his way around the keyboard by playing along with tapes of classic and progressive rock, Bach, Mozart, jazz-fusion, Floyd Cramer, and 80's pop, etc. As far as Cohen was concerned, all styles of music were full of secrets and none should be overlooked.

He joined several bands in high school, further developing his facility on the keyboard and learning the basic elements of music theory and performance. He would play every day after school with his brothers Jonathan (electric bass) and Jordan (drums) in a basement rehearsal room built by their father. Many other young musicians would come over to participate in these adventurous group improvisations, which frequently had no rhythmic, metric, harmonic or melodic boundaries. Although they had little idea at the time, the Cohen brothers were exploring highly advanced musical concepts that would establish their reputations as serious and creative young musicians.

With supportive parents, two very talented brothers, and many exciting musical experiences as inspiration, Adrian decided to apply to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. In order to be accepted at Berklee Adrian needed to get up to speed with the technical aspects of piano technique and reading music, which he had never seriously studied. He contacted local pianist and educator Morey Hall and began a 6 month crash course, studying scales, technique, and elementary piano literature. As a result of his brief tenure with Mr. Hall, and a crude but promising demo tape, Cohen was accepted at Berklee with a partial scholarship. He eventually declared a major in film scoring and studied with the excellent and versatile pianist Bruce Barth for two years.

After a decade of exploring jazz-based music, Cohen has started to come into his own as a composer and performer. Rooted in the Swing and Bebop styles of the 50's & 60's, but also drawing heavily from modern jazz, latin and classical music, Cohen's style is characterized by angular melodic runs, dense harmonic clusters, and heavily syncopated phrasing. He released his debut recording "Standardized" in 2003.