Tootie Heath Trio program

Mon & Tue

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SEP 24 & 25 7:30 pm

Pavilion

Tootie Heath Trio

featuring Emmet Cohen Just Friends Jazz Series

Sponsored by

We are pleased to partner with the Lied Center of Kansas to present the Just Friends Jazz Series.

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SEP 24 & 25 | Tootie Heath Trio featuring Emmet Cohen

There will be no intermission during this performance.

Selections will be announced from the stage.

Albert “Tootie” Heath (drummer), the younger brother of Percy and Jimmy Heath, has long been a powerful force in the creation of American music. As a teen, he shared the bandstand with Thelonious Monk and Lester Young, and upon moving to New York in 1957, made his recording debut with John Coltrane. Mr. Heath’s personality and musicianship embody heightened intelligence, sophistication and soul, and his drumming tells us that the heartbeat of jazz still oversees the spirit and conscience of American freedom. Now in his mid-eighties, he has chosen to unite with young titans Emmet Cohen (piano) and Corcoran Holt (bass). This unique collaboration is a rare moment in contemporary jazz—a “passing of the torch” that helps render this music forever modern.

Emmet Cohen, multifaceted American jazz pianist and composer, has emerged as one of his generation’s pivotal figures in music and the related arts. A recognized prodigy, Cohen began Suzuki method piano instruction at age three, and his playing quickly became a mature melding of musicality, technique and concept. Downbeat observed that his “nimble touch, measured stride and warm harmonic vocabulary indicate he’s above any convoluted technical showmanship.” In the same spirit, Cohen himself has noted that playing jazz is “about communicating the deepest level of humanity and individuality; it’s essentially about connections, both among musicians and with audiences.” Possessing a fluid technique, an innovative tonal palette and an expansive repertoire, Cohen plays with the command of a seasoned veteran and the passion of an artist fully devoted to his medium.

The trio anticipates an upcoming album release as part of Cohen’s project, Masters Legacy Series. Committed to the intergenerational transfer of artistic knowledge, history and traditions, Cohen’s Masters Legacy Series is a celebratory set of recordings and interviews honoring legendary jazz musicians. He serves as both producer and pianist for each album in the series. The goal of this landmark, ongoing project is to provide musicians of multiple generations a forum to transfer the unwritten folklore that is America’s unique musical idiom. Cohen has observed that playing jazz “is enriched immeasurably by connecting and studying with jazz masters, forging backward to the very creation of the art form.”