Future Stride

The sound of stride piano vividly evokes scenes from the past: the roaring nightclubs of 1920s Harlem, the raucous birth pangs of jazz’s nascent years, the gymnastic burlesques of risk-taking silent movie madcaps. But in the music of pianist/composer Emmet Cohen, the past is always present, if not venturing with sly turns into an open-eared future as we enter a new iteration of the roaring 20s.

At only 30 years old, pianist Emmet Cohen — the winner of the American Pianists Association’s 2019 Co­le Porter Fellowship — has made a name for himself performing/re­cording with jazz masters Jimmy Cobb, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Tootie Heath and George Coleman, among others. On his new album, Cohen revisits jazz’s earliest forms through a progressive lens. Future Stride features bassist Russell Hall, drummer Kyle Poole, trumpeter Marquis Hill and saxophonist Melissa Aldana.