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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Allen Morrison

Live From Emmet’s Place: inside New York’s most exclusive jazz concert

‘I wanted to figure out how to create an online community where we could play and make money’ … Nicholas Payton, Emmet Cohen, Kyle Poole and Russell Hall.
‘I wanted to figure out how to create an online community where we could play and make money’ … Nicholas Payton, Emmet Cohen, Kyle Poole and Russell Hall. Photograph: Mark Lennihan

It’s the most exclusive jazz concert in New York. Only about eight guests can attend the weekly shows, by invitation only, squeezing into the 32-year-old jazz pianist Emmet Cohen’s fifth-floor walk-up in Harlem. Meanwhile, thousands more around the world tune into livestreams of the event on Facebook and YouTube.

Live From Emmet’s Place started as a near-desperate response to the disappearance of gigs for musicians when the Covid-19 pandemic began. Ninety-four shows later, the weekly concert featuring Cohen, his trio with bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole, and a roster of guest musicians who represent some of the jazz world’s leading lights, has evolved into the most highly watched regular online jazz show in the world.

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