LouisvilleMusic.com

Jazzin'
By Martin Z. Kasdan Jr.

RECENT CONCERTS
CD Release Parties at the Jazz Factory: Zach Brock, Ryan Cohan & Eric Person
Preliminarily, I believe it is past time to acknowledge the importance of the jazz Factory, not just as a Louisville club, but as a significant player on the national scene. In less than three weeks, three important artists all chose the Jazz Factory to premiere new releases. Zach Brock even recorded his new CD here and Ryan Cohan mentioned club owner Ken Shapero in the list of people thanked in his CD. Eric Person and Meta‑Four began their CD tour here.
Following Brock is no easy task, but Chicago pianist and composer Ryan Cohan made it look easy as he brought his quartet in the next two nights, Friday‑Saturday, September 14 -15. Longtime Cohan associates saxophonist Geof Bradfield and bassist Lorin Cohen were joined by drummer Michael Raynor, as regular drummer Kobie Watkins was in Japan with Kurt Elling. Cohan's new album, One Sky: Tone Poems for Humanity, is his first for the Motema label (home of Louisville favorite Lynne Arriale, among others) and features Bob Sheppard, James Cammack, Geof Bradfield, Tito Carrillo, Lorin Cohen and Kobie Watkins. I was pleased to see Jazz Factory owner Ken Shapero in the list of "thankees," as the Jazz Factory has been a supporter of Cohan's music since it opened. A waltz featuring Bradfield on soprano was in progress as I entered and was followed by "Double Agent" from the new release. This was a fast Latin-tinged number, with pianist and drummer pushing against each other to create musical tension and release, after which Bradfield's solo leaned into the abstract and included a quote from the opening "Acknowledgment" movement of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Cohan has always relished the work of Thelonious Monk and paid tribute to him in "Monk's Dream," which swung hard and allowed Bradfield a chance to work out on his tenor. The set closer "Checkmate," also from the new CD, took Cohan and company into McCoy Tyner modal territory.
The second set opened with a Coltrane-like invocational feel, with Raynor moving from mallets to sticks as the moods changed. "Steppin' Up," as introduced by Cohan, "features our drummer on a blues head I wrote." The Victor Feldman piece associated with Miles Davis, "Joshua," was enjoyable and led to a new piece from One Sky, "Six Fortunes," which featured a lengthy bowed bass introduction with Oriental motifs from Cohan and cymbal effects from Raynor. Cohan followed with a solo interpretation of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life," as featured on One Sky and closed the evening with Kenny Barron's "The Pelican," which combined precision and speed with deep emotion. The album itself features a beautiful cover photograph by Cohan himself and is anchored by a four-part suite underwritten by the Chamber Music America New Works Creation and Presentation Program. Throughout both the suite and the other songs on this CD, Cohan's writing seems to reach new levels. He told me between sets that "I try to write more expansively, not just head charts and the suite was built with the [expanded] sextet in mind. I rely on orchestration to get the point across - stretching lines out more and using the piano with horns as counterpoints." If you have not caught any if Cohan's performances yet, that is all the more reason to find this CD and give it the attention which it deserves. This is an excellent and intelligent recording and deserves a wide audience.