★★★★☆
Emmet Cohen is unusual among young jazz musicians in having a keen sense of the music’s ancient history — it isn’t often you hear a 32-year-old playing a tune by Willie “The Lion” Smith, as he does here. That doesn’t mean the American pianist is some tweedy fuddy-duddy mired in the past. On this expansive album he matches each atavistic exploration with a piece of ferocious vitality, aiming to make history as he honours it.
That Smith piece, the appropriately named Finger Buster, showcases Cohen’s formidable skill as he tackles its fiendish themes at a mean pace, tossing in his own complications along the way. His dexterity is balanced by a warm combination of wit and charm. Yet it’s followed by the title
