David Bennett Cohen
| David Bennett Cohen | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | David Bennett Cohen |
| Born |
August 4, 1942 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | c. 1959–present |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | Official website |
David Bennett Cohen (born August 4, 1942) is an American musician best known as the original keyboardist for the late-1960s psychedelic rock and blues band Country Joe and the Fish.
Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied classical piano from the age of seven, and later learned to play guitar. When he was fourteen, he heard boogie-woogie piano for the first time, and from then on his playing was influenced by boogie-woogie, as well as piano blues. When he was young he attended live performances of Otis Spann, Professor Longhair, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Seeger, Joshua Rifkin and Josh White, among others. In April 1961, he was one of the musicians involved in the "Beatnik Riot" in Washington Square Park, protesting against the authorities' refusal to allow musicians permits to play in the park. As a guitarist, who performed regularly in Greenwich Village, he started a folk group, the Lane County Bachelors, with Artie Traum and Eric Nagler.
In 1965, soon after discovering the Beatles and turning to rock music, he dropped out of college and moved to Berkeley, California, where he met musicians including Chicken Hirsh and Jerry Garcia. He and Hirsh backed the duo Blackburn & Snow, and Cohen also played boogie-woogie piano in a club, the Jabberwock. There he met guitarist Barry Melton, and was introduced to Country Joe McDonald as a pianist and organist – although, at the time, Cohen had never played organ. He joined McDonald's new band, Country Joe and the Fish, with Melton, Bruce Barthol, Paul Armstrong and John Francis Gunning later saying:
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