Alex Cohen is like the Keyser Soze of a certain milieu of drummers. The hub of a dark web that includes players like Andy Prado, Maison Guidry, Steve Lyman, Jerad Lippi, JP Bouvet, and a gaggle of students who themselves are well known. Like the one ring that secretly binds them together, everyone with a secret “Alex” connection, or a shed. (You realize after looking that he’s been on Drumeo and won one of their awards.)
And that’s probably the least interesting thing about Alex.
How about this one: after surviving a brain tumor, he discovered he could play in different time signatures at once. And not like 6 in one hand and 4 in the other, or anything pase like that. I mean he can lay down a hat ostinato in 4 with his left foot, improvise in 5 with his left hand, and improvise in 7 at the same time between his right foot and right hand.
Or that he uses drums to keep him going through sessions of chemo-therapy.
Alex is like the real life David Goggins of drums, if David Goggins were interesting.
Behind the scenes, though, he’s just a kind, enthusiastic drum nerd who can talk drums for hours. And I mean hours. After we stopped recording this interview, we talked for 2 more hours.
I hope that’s within a stone’s throw of an introduction for the man for whom every introduction falls short.
I know you’ll enjoy this one. And hopefully forgive some audio foibles as we learn how to do the “live” podcasts.