The Kenny
Cohen          
Interview  by  Michael Zangari

Kenny Cohen bites off a phrase of the blues he
is singing, throws his head back and punctuates
it with a smooth lead guitar, hitting the over-
tones of the notes, bending them in and letting
them go to accentuate the feelings behind them.
The last note is out of scale and sweet and
hangs in the quiet of the club like a teardrop
off an eyelash. He swivels to his right and hugs
a saxophone to his chest. He begins to blow,
heavy breath-like lines that build and break.  
Then he is back into the vocal line with guitar
for the ending.

The audience is small but into his set. They clap
and hoot as the song ends. A couple that has
been slow dancing  in the dark at the back
kisses long, Cohen’s eyes are on them from the
stage. He segues into something slower, but no
less punchy. Something old made new. Something
borrowed and jazzed. Something decidedly blue.
Cohen is at Nancy’s Casablanca, 231 Minuteman
Causeway in Cocoa Beach.
Nancy’s is a funky little box car of a lounge
rouged in soft red lights.
The whole place is red.
There is a fire engine red piano at the center
of the bar and red ashtrays on the table. The
low track lighting is red-filtered and  throws
rivers of red light through the club. The light
pools around the tables.  It reflects off the
silver tinsel curtains that Cohen is playing in
front of.  It shimmies when the song ends.
The applause scatter in. Cohen smiles.
“What do you want to hear?” he says, making
eye contact with the audience.
He is as cool and casual as the host of a family
reunion dinner.  The Papa. Calling the shots.

“Mose Allison” is the request from one of the
tables.
The club is small enough that the request is not
yelled.
Its conversational.  He fingers through the
cards in the Rolodex. "Yeah,” he says. Cohen’s
got it, “I use to do something of his in a band I
was in awhile back.”

He flips through cards in the Rolodex  again and
finds the tune he is looking for.  He goes
through the loose stack of ZIP disks piled like
cards on the sound mixer beside him. He gets
the right one and slaps it into his deck.  He trips
the button and a backing track plays. It is studio
recorded and carefully layered to pillow him as
he jams.  He  plays off it, a classic call and
response kind of thing with winds and guitar.  
Cohen has been doing music for well over 40
years. He’s got that kind of confidence in his
playing. He has played with headliners like the
Eagles, Carlos Santana, Rod Stewart and B.B.
King. He was intimately  involved in the Grammy
nominated recording he did  with Jacksonville’s
Charles Waterford, the great jazz and blues
vocalist.
Cohen says of his music career, “It’s a life
style.”
And life goes on, bra. He recently played the
1965 Satellite Beach High School reunion where
he is remembered locally as a member of the
rock band, the Dimensions.
“When I first came to Florida in 1962, I was in
tenth grade. I had a band within the first few
weeks of school. That was my mind set. I got
into surfing and loved it. But I loved and wanted
to play music.  So here I was at the beginning of
the east coast surf scene also playing music.”
Cohen played in the school and marching bands.  
That is where Charmaine Burdett met him. She
says things haven’t changed much for Cohen.
She says he still has the same effect on people.  
That he still draws a loyal audience, most of
them women.
“Kenny has always been a good-looking guy and
most of the girls had a crush on him - myself
included. He was very popular,” she says. “Just
recently I saw Kenny play at the Steve Miller
Memorial Blues Bash at Lou's Blues - he was
playing sax and walking through the club,
upstairs and downstairs, playing.  I thought it
was great,” she said.  “That's Kenny, he and the
audience are one - it is not just him playing on
stage and the audience listening.  He caters to
his audience - gets to know their names - takes
requests – he is very personable. “
Cohen says he is blessed to have a family life
that really encouraged him.
“My dad has an affinity for music. When he was
living in New York he always went to Harlem. He
was a good-looking, popular man. Women loved
him.  He was good friends with Louie
Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and
Billy Eckstein,” Cohen said.
“When I was a child I heard names like Lester
Young, Coleman Hawkins, Chic Web, Barney
Begard, and Ray Nance--all these cats that I
never knew were even important. I’d go to these
shows as a baby and hang out back stage with
the whole Duke Ellington Orchestra,” Cohen
said.  “Band members came over for dinner. I
heard my whole life what a great tone Johnny
Hodges had. So it wasn’t a big surprise when I
picked up alto sax and had that sound.”
Cohen’s solo act evolved out of his studio work.
“I always worked with great players and we
were always involved in the recording process,”
he said.  
Cohen spends a lot of time in the studio alone
and with friends. He has over two hundred
songs that he does regularly.
“There’s a kind of energy you only get from
playing in front of an audience.” He said.  “I care
about everyone in the audience. I don’t discount
anyone.  I always either learn something I did
not know about or become enlightened  to
something in the moment that I can be a part of.
I keep my ears and eyes open. I don’t want to
miss anything.  I have to be part of the total
process, the whole experience.  Without the
audience I can’t validate anything I am doing.”
Although Cohen has been “accused of having
great ears,” he says that his sound comes out of
constant rehearsing. “I really was blessed with a
gift but all I did was let it come out. I never met
anyone who did anything well without doing it a
lot.”   
He says a lot of great people taught him a lot of
great things. He says he likes all kinds of music.
He says he can play flute with a classical pianist
or klezmer.
He is unapologetic about his skill level or tastes.
“I never met anyone that goes on stage or
makes records to sound bad. I like punk rock. I
like heavy metal. I like country. I like rap. I don’
t care. I appreciate it all. It’s all music to me.  It
serves a great purpose.”
What’s  coming up next for Cohen?
“I’ve got to get a box of alto reeds” he said.
“I’m thinking about what I’m playing tomorrow
night. Everything I’m doing is the greatest thing
I’ve ever done. I am hopeful and optimistic
about things. It is ludicrous for to me to talk
about the next great project. Anything can
happen. When it’s my turn
I will be taken to the place I’m supposed to be.
I’ll have to do the footwork to get there, but
I’ll be led. The greatest things in my life just
happened. I did not plan them. I just paid
attention to what was going on and reacted to
them.”
Back on stage he’s working the crowd like the
Buddha under a Bodi tree or Billie Sunday in
front of his tent.  He notices little detail.
Hooking into conversations. Stopping things.
He talks to the people at the bar, the bartender.

At the back of the bar the kiss that goes on
forever is sweet and silent. And he gives in to
that too, watching, for just a moment before he
segues a song over it.
Requests and dedications. It’s a life style, man.
That’s it.
He picks up his saxophone,  hugs it  too his
chest and kisses it while the high hat sizzles.


You can find out more about Kenny Cohen at
http:// kennycohen.com
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Note:
This article was originally written for
Concierge magazine. I want to thank
Randy for paying me,  for the article
and the photos, and secondly for the
permission to run the article at the
Web site. Concierge magazine is not on
the stands at this writing, but it will be
soon. Randy says they are in no hurry to
get it there. He’s busy at the Groove,
the smooth jazz radio station in Palm
Bay. The station is listener sponsored.  
That means that people who listen to
the station also finance it.  He’s very
busy with producing shows. The Groove’
s jazz nights at local bars are also tight
community, on the water and very cool.
That's a tip. For more information on
the jazz nights click the icon below.
Charmaine Burdett
Coming Soon
The Zangari Lee
Ritenour interview.
thegroove.org