Andy Cohn
The Pianist
Composer. Improviser. Curious listener.
The Story
Andy Cohn has been playing piano since childhood — not because anyone made him, but because the instrument made sense in a way little else did. The keys were a language before he had words for what he wanted to say.
Over the years, that language grew. Classical training gave way to jazz, jazz gave way to improvisation, and improvisation gave way to something harder to name — original compositions that draw on all of it without belonging to any of it.
Every piece Andy writes is an original. Every performance is unrepeatable. That's not a philosophy — it's just how it works.
Chicago
Andy's Music Chicago
Andy's Music Chicago is more than a store — it's a world of instruments, a gathering place for musicians, and the backdrop against which many of these compositions were born.
Surrounded by guitars, violins, brass, woodwinds, and every kind of percussion, Andy has spent years listening to what each instrument can do. That listening shows up in the music — in the way a piano line might echo a cello's warmth, or a left-hand pattern borrows the rhythm of a drum.
The store is on the North Side of Chicago. If you're a musician, you've probably already been there.
Collaborations
Fellow Musicians
Some of Andy's compositions were written alone. Others grew out of conversations with musicians who came through Andy's Music — cellists, violinists, clarinetists, percussionists. A few of those conversations became recordings.
String Quartet
The Chicago Suite was written for and recorded with a string quartet assembled from musicians Andy met at the store.
Cello
Duet with Cello came from an afternoon session that was never meant to be recorded. It was.
Woodwinds
Several ensemble pieces feature clarinet and flute — voices that Andy finds complement the piano's range without competing with it.
"I don't think of myself as a jazz pianist or a classical pianist. I'm just a pianist who writes his own music."
— Andy Cohn