From the University of New Hampshire (Nov, 2017):

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Pedal steel guitarist Jim Cohen visits

Adrienne Perron, Staff Writer•

Thu, Nov 16, 2017

      Philadelphia-based and internationally acclaimed pedal steel guitarist Jim Cohen came out this past Monday night, Nov. 13, to play jazz standards as rendered on the electric and steel guitar in the Bratton Recital Hall of the Paul Creative Arts Center (PCAC). He was joined by three members of the UNH Department of Music, Bronek Bronislaw? Suchanek, David Newsam and Les Harris Jr. on the bass, guitar and drums respectively. His performance drew students of the music department, members of the community and a few fellow pedal steel guitarists to its audience. 

      According to Cohen’s website, he was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. He started playing acoustic guitar at 12 and by high school, he became interested in country and rock music. Through country and rock, Cohen became exposed to the sound of the pedal steel guitar and fell in love. 

      "Rusty Young was my first inspiration for playing steel guitar,” Cohen stated. "I grew up listening to Poco, that was the door I came in.”

      The instrument has led him into a wide range of music such as jazz, pop, country, rock and folk. Jim has recorded five CDs with his Philadelphia-based Texas swing band, Beats Walkin.’ His latest release "Pedal Steel Jazz” (2012) features some of the best Philadelphia-area jazz musicians such as Frank Strauss, Steve Beskrone, Chico Huff and Grant MacAvoy.

      Cohen stated that at conventions, he enjoys playing styles of music on the pedal steel guitar that are different than the "Hawaiian” and "country” kinds of music that most people associate with the instrument.

      "I like to be different… I play this kind of material and I mix it up with some Pop stuff… always different than what everyone else is doing, I don’t like competition,” Cohen said.

      Toward the end of his performance, Cohen and the other instrumentalists took a break from playing music so that Cohen could talk about the structure of the unique pedal steel guitar. He explained how the instrument has eight pedals, two necks, 10 strings and five knee levers that are used to produce the instrument’s sound. Cohen also explained that it is not the instrument itself that is made of steel, but it is the "tone bar,” which is detached from the instrument, but utilized on the strings to help produce chord changes.

      Cohen stated that he and the musicians joining him played for the first time all together about an hour and a half before the performance. 

      "It came out,” he stated. "It’s a great pleasure to play with these guys… I don’t get to play with players of this caliber every day.” 

      First-year student Damian Bernardini, a jazz guitar major from Londonderry, New Hampshire and first-year student Landon Buell, engineering and physics major from northern New Jersey, stated that they hadn’t heard much about the pedal steel guitar before Cohen came to campus. They found the performance to be very impressive.

      "I’ve never actually seen [the pedal steel guitar] being used, it was very cool to see in that kind of environment,” Buell stated.

      Cohen expressed that his favorite part of playing the pedal steel guitar is the emotion that the instrument elicits.

      "One of the things I like best is surprising people at how much of a good jazz instrument it can be… I don’t want to give people what they are expecting from the instrument,” Cohen said.

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