Settled into an attractive original repertoire, the Cohen-Rutkowski Project returns to the Jazz Kitchen

The Cohen-Rutkowski Project in full cry 

I suspected it would be good to catch the Cohen-Rutkowski Project again at the Jazz Kitchen, but I'd forgotten it had been so long ago as the Covid-emergent era of November 2021. It proved well worth a return visit, as this well-stocked, mutually supportive group commendably  held down the one-set Sunday night spot at the club yesterday.

Co-leaders Rich Cohen, a hearty virtuoso on alto and tenor saxophones, co-leads the group with composer-pianist Chris Rutkowski. For this visit, a guest of star quality, Mark Buselli, helped Cohen fill out the front line. The trumpeter-flugelhornist also took a turn on congas, and it would have been a shame if those drums had been  onstage only for show, as this established jazz academic also sports a learned elbow and a sliding wetted finger to alter the pitch in solos. 

The rest of the rhythm section consisted of equally capable drummer Chelsea Hughey  and  bassist Joe Tyksinski, An impressive cameo appearance was registered by Emilee Dixon, an intense yet essentially suave singer who negotiated Rutkowski's lyrics to three of his originally instrumental tunes. 

The gospel idiom is a style she brought to bear naturally in a song that paid tribute to the late Congressman Elijah Thompson. The title Rutkowski gave it, "Mr. E.T," was probably a punning nod to John Coltrane's "Mr. P.C.,"  a salute to the much-admired post-bop  bassist Paul Chambers. She had made a good first impression in the third piece, "Slow Waltz," to  which Buselli put his special stamp with the mellow eloquence of the flugelhorn. 

Buselli had exhibited his blazing potential on trumpet with the ensemble's second outing, "Rob's Thing," where a confirming thunder came from Hughey's drum kit. That amounted to a salute to Indianapolis' jazz mayor, Rob Dixon, who was likewise the dedicatee of "Rob's Groove."  

The band's co-leaders are generous with shoutouts to acknowledged masters, notably the sainted tenorman Michael Brecker. "Ode to the Titan" was a vehicle for Cohen, who created a kind of "alto madness" in his solo; elsewhere, the deep-delving piano style of Rutkowski suggested some Brecker Brothers' "skunk funk" along the way to the conclusion.

As the band's spokesman from the stage, Cohen indicated the joint credit of the pianist and drummer for "The Hit," with its inviting ensemble at the start indicating how a motivated band quickly puts things together on a gig, connecting with the audience. Cohen had long, seductive phrases in his solo. Hughey concocted a witty solo, slightly skeptical at first, then fully assertive.

Like every Cohen-Rutkowski arrangement, the piece had a well-designed ending; this isn't a band favoring deliberately ragged ways of putting a full stop on each song. Its sense of proportion is fine: it made sense for a trip through the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" to have short solos from Cohen, Buselli, and Rutkowski, with a concise coda consisting of brief exchanges in the front line.

The set ended with Rutkowski's "Copacetic," a piece that made me a fan in 2021. The catchy governing rhythm is a variation on the "hambone" pattern that Bo Diddley moved into the rock-n-roll mainstream in the 1950s. Solo excursions by each horn in duo with the drums was a nice episode in a performance that probably sent everyone away with a spring in their step.