The expression ‘living legend’ is quickly misused, but if this label has any significance at all, then it fits David Bennett Cohen. Don’t think you’re starting to get Alzheimer if this name doesn’t immediately ring a bell. But his service record speaks volumes: piano player by education, guitar player by vocation, he joined Country Joe & The Fish in 1965, where he played keyboards during the Woodstock days. By the way, Country Joe McDonald is still as committed as he was then: his rage against the Vietnam war (‘I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die’) has turned into a fight against the Bush administration and the war in Iraq…and with as much grimness and determination as ever! When Country Joe went solo, Cohen evolved into a much wanted blues and boogie woogie piano player, live and in the studio. See impressive listing in the biography on his site. Besides being an active musician Cohen has always been and still is a piano and guitar teacher, and a good one at that: his reputation as a tutor is maybe even greater. Nowadays he can take it all on in a very relaxed way. After the success of ‘In The Pocket’ and ‘At The Piano’ there’s Cookin’ With Cohen, filled with originals except for ‘Mercury Blues’ (the KC Douglas tune) and ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’. Very diverse material, maybe a little too diversified, in the sense that the CD doesn’t really feel as an entity or unity. It starts out with boogie, then gets a gospel flavor, followed by a bar room piece (‘Booze’, nice lyrics)… The singing doesn’t help as it is adequate, but nothing more. Happily the playing and the quality of the songs are okay. Only halfway through the record, when New Orleans and Cohen’s greatest hero Professor Longhair enter the picture, the gumbo starts cooking and the CD gets more or less an identity: ‘Crawfish Royale’, the brilliant, somewhat Neville Brothers like ‘Portuguese Moon’ and the instrumental ‘Funky Peaches’ are smack on. Towards the end Cookin’ With Cohen widens its scope again with ‘The Cool Fool’, sounding like a Santana piece, with the typical guitar, the NOLA version of ‘When The Saints…’ (not really original, if you ask us) and the piano solo ‘Blues For A Summer’s Dream’. Ideal, civilised FM radio music of the better kind, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But maybe next time Cohen should play a lot less on the safe side. He doesn’t need to but when you play the keys like this you might want to set higher standards.