Ryan Cohan is a jazz pianist and composer. His style is a blend of world rhythms, traditional jazz, and classical.

Early life and career

Cohan's mother, who was a music teacher and classical pianist, introduced him to music from a young age. He could read sheet music by age five and started learning violin at nine. He later switched to piano and, by his sophomore year of high school, knew he wanted his future to be in music.

His pursuit of music took him to DePaul University

DePaul University

DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...

, where he received a Bachelor of Music

Bachelor of Music

Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...

 in jazz performance, and later to Skidmore College

Skidmore College

Skidmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State....

.

In the late 90s, Cohan wrote and arranged songs for Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...

's albums Dance of the Soul and Appassionata, a 2000 album that was named "jazz album of the year" by Billboard Magazine. Additionally, Cohan has worked with Freddie Hubbard

Freddie Hubbard

Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...

, Milt Hinton

Milt Hinton

Milton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".-Biography:...

, Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education...

, Joe Locke

Joe Locke

Joseph Paul Locke is a US American jazz vibraphonist, composer, recording artist and educator.-Biography:Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, New York...

, Andy Narell

Andy Narell

Andy Narell is a musician and composer specialized in the steelpan.-Biography:He was born in New York City and moved to California in his teens. He took up the steelpan at a very young age in Queens, New York...

, Curtis Fuller

Curtis Fuller

Curtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.-Biography:...

, Pat La Barbera, Regina Carter

Regina Carter

Regina Carter is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of famous jazz saxophonist James Carter.-Early life:...

, Nick Brignola

Nick Brignola

-Biography:He was born on July 17, 1936 in Troy, New York. Nick was born into a musical family in which his father played the tuba and his uncle played the banjo. As a mostly self-taught musician, he developed his facility on all of his instruments using unconventional techniques, which gave his...

, Andy Bey

Andy Bey

Andrew W. Bey is a jazz singer and pianist.Bey has a wide vocal range, with his four octave baritone voice.He worked on a television show, Startime, with Connie Francis and sang for Louis Jordan....

, Kurt Elling

Kurt Elling

Kurt Elling is an American jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist and vocalese performer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling first became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church...

, and Michal Urbaniak

Michal Urbaniak

Michał Urbaniak is a Polish jazz musician and composer born in Warsaw, playing mainly the violin, lyricon and saxophone during concerts and recordings...

 among others.

As bandleader

In 1996, Ryan recorded his first solo album, Real World, with jazz artists from Chicago and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...

.

Cohan's second album, Here and Now, was released in 2001 on Sirocco Music. For this album, Cohan formed the Ryan Cohan Sextet, which featured Bob Sheppard

Bob Sheppard (musician)

Bob Sheppard is an American jazz saxophone player.Sheppard has been a studio musician on a wide range of studio, film and television projects, and has also recorded his own albums...

 and Geof Bradfield on woodwinds, James Cammack

James Cammack

James Alfred Conrad Cammack Jr. is an African American bassist, from the region of Cornwall, NY.He is the bassist for the Ahmad Jamal Trio, which includes the founder, Ahmad Jamal and drummer, Idris Muhammad. Cammack both records and tours with the trio...

 and Lorin Cohen on bass, Tito Carrillo on trumpet, and Dana Hall

Dana Hall (musician)

Dana Hall is an American jazz drummer, percussionist, composer, bandleader, and ethnomusicologist. After spending the first few years of his life in Brooklyn, New York , he relocated with his family to his mother’s hometown of Philadelphia...

 on drums.

In 2007, One Sky

One Sky

One Sky is a jazz album composed by Ryan Cohan, performed by the RC Sextet and released 16 October 2007 on Motéma Music.The album's name comes from the concept that all of humanity lives under one sky and that, therefore, man cannot operate as a solitary creature...

was released on Motéma. The album is split into two sections; the first half of the album consists of original compositions and a piano solo of "Lush Life

Lush Life (song)

"Lush Life" is a jazz standard with lyrics and music written by Billy Strayhorn from 1933 to 1938. However, the song was only performed privately by Strayhorn until he and vocalist Kay Davis performed it on November 13, 1948 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Carnegie Hall...

" while the second half consists of a four-part suite titled One Sky: Tone Poems for Humanity. J. Hunter of Albanyjazz.com listed One Sky in his top 5 albums of 2008, saying, "Cohan’s ability to make a sextet sound like a big band gives his message a rich, multi-hued platform, and that message shines ever so brightly."

Tours

With the Ryan Cohan Quartet, Cohan has toured the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

, Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

, Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

, and Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. In 2009, the Quartet will tour Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

 as "Jazz Ambassadors" with the Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad Program sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center

Jazz at Lincoln Center

Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....

 and the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State fosters mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries around the world...

.