With these players, early jazz takes on new meaning
by Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., November 7, 2003) – Anyone who is the least bit concerned about the jazz tradition being passed down to the next generation can rest a little bit easier. From the vantage point of this weekend’s nightclub lineup, the music appears to continue to lure younger talents attracted by the music’s challenge and ample opportunities for personal expression.

Straight-ahead bebop is in the good hands of Adrian Cohen, whose new trio album, “Standardized” (Wepa), features something of a greatest hits approach in terms of composers – Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane are all represented – if not in terms of song selection – Cohen generally favors lesser-known material like Davis’s “Nardis” and Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning.” The playing on “Standardized,” featuring drummer Pete Sweeney and 23-year-old bassist Mike DelPrete, is tasteful and respectful, yet always full of surprise.

Albany’s Cohen, who has been voted Best Pianist by the Capital District’s Metroland newspaper for two years running, brings his quintet – which was voted best jazz ensemble by Metroland last summer – to the Castle Street Café (528-5244) on Saturday at 8. The son of jazz bassist Norman Cohen, who came up on the same Rochester scene that produced the likes of trumpeter Chuck Mangione, drummer Steve Gadd, and bassist Tony Levin, Cohen, 35, studied with pianist Bruce Barth at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and holds down weekly residencies at such Capital District venues as Justin’s in Albany and the Van Dyck in Schenectady.

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