Emmet Cohen at Strathmore Music Center

Emmet Cohen 
Strathmore Music Center
100 Years of Miles and Coltrane
Bethesda, MD
March 24, 2026

Amidst the gnashing of teeth over the demise of the Kennedy Center and the departure of its jazz series and estimable leader Kevin Struthers, DC music fans have had little to smile about in recent weeks. But, tucked up north, ten or so stops on the Red Line in Bethesda, MD, the Strathmore Music Center offers a wonderful ray of hope in these dark political times. When you have Emmet Cohen, Diana Krall, Chris Botti and Michael Feinstein on the bandstand in the same month, perhaps it's okay to let Orangehead have his way with a jackhammer down by the Potomac.

The Music Center at Strathmore is a lovely, warm room—far more welcoming than the formal, stuffy confines of the Kennedy Center. Even that building's more intimate Terrace Theatre—home to most of Struthers' schedules past, including the much-admired Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival—has a bit of lecture hall feel to it. Looking down on the proceedings from those perches, they miss the opportunity to use lighting to enhance the performances. The Terrace acoustics are great, but so are the Strathmore's. Musicians often laud its blonde wood surfaces and comfy seats as home to the best sound in the DMV (that's District, Maryland and Virginia for the uninitiated).

Case in point: Emmet Cohen's tribute to the 100th birthdays of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The remarkable young pianist and social media savant has been touring his trio—drummer Joe Farnsworth and double bass man Reuben Rogers—with special guests Jeremy Pelt and Tivon Pennicott limning Davis and Coltrane respectively. This quintet's standout concert of straight ahead jazz at the Strathmore made a sold out throng forget about politics for ninety virtuosic minutes.

Kicking things off with his trio on the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic "Surrey With the Fringe on Top," the redoubtable Cohen took a subdued swing at the piece, with a walking bass bluesy feel that transmogrified into cut time gallop, bass and drums pushing the tempo along at a breakneck pace. The nattily-attired leader, all gray striped suit and those signature b&w wingtips, pulled the proceedings down to a canter before Farnsworth's military drum figures concluded the piece with sticks flung in the air.

Then on came featured artists Pelt and Pendicott, Cohen pointed out that centenarians Davis and Coltrane both chose their own paths—not always the easiest ones. When those paths crossed—as they did on the John Lewis-Cannonball Adderley showcase "Two Bass Hit"—the pace could be dizzying. On this number, Pennicott brought a tight, fusillade of phrases ricocheting across the frontmen. Cohen's piano punctuations swung back and forth between his guests. Drummer Farnsworth offered up a solo that went beyond his kit up and down the mic stand, an homage to Philly Joe Jones' flashy stick work on the tune's 1955 recording. 

Cohen slowed things down with "Amandla," the title track from Davis' album with bassist Marcus Miller, who arranged the composition. A softly muted trumpet brought a film noir feel to the chart, with the tenor and horn soul searching betwixt and between somber piano fills. The American songbook staple "Falling in Love is Wonderful" continued that moody feel, with Pennicott's vibrato-filled voicings ringing out the melody in his sweet final phrases. Here was Coltrane's sensitive side, hung between patches of silence by Pennicott that held the audience in his thrall.

Cohen offered up his "Universal Truth Suite," lush melodies swinging between the gifted musicians. Cohen dug into his sound board; Farnsworth took an elbow to his drums after an exhausting solo. The players trilled and bleated back and forth in Cohen's homage to his hundred-year-old heroes. For an encore, the pianist called up a Davis-Coltrane medley that ranged from standards like  Anthony Newley "Who Can I Turn To" to Davis' "So What" from Kind of Blue. (Columbia, 1959)  

Then off we went into the Bethesda night. Bethesda is biblical, you know: it means house of grace in Greek, adapted from the ancient Hebrew. "Grace" seemed like an appropriate handle  for the concert that night. Grace of five gifted musicians at the top of their game. Grace of the abiding genius of two jazz gods. And grace of the Strathmore, a wonderful venue doing its part to keep jazz alive while Nero fiddles downtown.

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