YouTube algorithms are scary. Based on what you've watched before, these formulas automatically figure out what you should watch next. If you're a frequent YouTube user, you know what I'm talking about—those video clips perched on the right-hand side like a line of cats waiting for their heads to be stroked. A week or two ago, these algorithms lined up videos by Emmet Cohen from his ongoing webcast series called Live From Emmet's Place. [Photo above, from left, Emmet Cohen, Russell Hall, Tivon Pennicott and Kyle Poole, courtesy of YouTube]
As Emmet told me in a recent email, when the going was especially tough in New York with Covid last March and nothing was happening, he started Emmet's Place with his trio, bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole. Each Monday at 7:30 p.m. at his New York apartment, Emmet would have special guests in to jam with his trio while cameras taped. The resulting high-resolution webcasts attracted widespread attention and sponsors. Here are six of these clips (many more are online):
Here's the Emmet Cohen Trio with vocalist Cyrille Aimée singing La Vie en Rose...
Here's the trio with vocalist Catherine Russell and Ken Peplowski on tenor saxophone and clarinet on The Song is Ended...
Here's the trio playing Billy Boy and then being joined by vocalist Veronica Swift on Getting to Know You, from the King and I...
Here's Swift on Four...
Here's Aimée and the trio on Young and Foolish...
And here's the trio with Giveton Gelin on trumpet and Patrick Bartley on alto saxophone playing Emmet's You Already Know...
Emmet's latest album, Future Stride, can be found here or at Spotify.