phone: 917.362.4604
email: mike@mikecohenmusic.com
myspace: www.myspace.com/mikecohenmusic
Mike Just completed production on his CD, Open Window.
No stranger to the Jazz scene, Mike has performed with the Duke Ellington Band, Ray Vega, Steven Bernstein, Arturo O’ Farrell and Harvey S., just to name a few. He has played in noteworthy venues such as: Lincoln Center, Birdland, Tonic, Satalla and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall.
The quintet assembled to record his new disc, Open Window, recorded at famed Bennett Studio, are some of the finest jazz musicians playing in New York City today. Mike has said that “it was an honor” to have Pete Brendler, Rich Huntley, Soren Moller and Amanda Monaco playing on this disc. Their high-level talent allowed his music to have the complete artistic expression he envisioned.
Open Window, features eight original tunes composed by Mike Cohen and one standard. The core narrative of the album, Mike has said, is “about two things...emotion and communication” which was inspired by his teenage battle with Leukemia. Open Window is an album that has been brewing in his psyche for awhile and is the culmination of time spent developing his own voice.
As clarinetist and bandleader, Mike’s is also devoted to his klezmer band Kleztraphobix. Their latest album, Another Bottle of Vodka has been described by Klezmershack as "defining an exciting, driving sound that makes New York the place to listen to Klezmer."
Career highlights include playing with: composer Bill “Apollo” Brown, Rebecca Garfein’s, Golden Chants in America, on Fado singer Fatima Santos’ CD, Nostalgia, and with R&B band, Ellis Island. Mike has also collaborated as composer and performer with Rina Rinkowitch’s dance company, Return of the Sun, and with the chamber Opera Harlots Progress, which was performed in Nantes, France.