John Cohen

John Cohen (August 2, 1932 – September 16, 2019) was an American folk musician and musicologist, founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers as well as a musicologist, photographer and filmmaker. Some of his best known images document the Abstract Expressionist scene centered on New York's Cedar Bar; gallery happenings by early performance artists; young Bob Dylan's arrival in New York; Beat Generation writers during the filming of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's film Pull My Daisy; and the "old time" musicians of Appalachia. (The title of Cohen's 1962 film, High Lonesome Sound, has become synonymous with that music.) He was one of the most important "discoverers" of traditional musicians and singers, finding and recording Dillard Chandler, Roscoe Holcomb, and many banjo players, most notably on the album High Atmosphere. Beyond the United States, Cohen traveled extensively to Peru, driven by a fascination for the weaving and lifestyle of the native Andean population. His field recording of a Peruvian wedding song is included on the Voyager Golden Record, attached to the Voyager spacecraft. Cohen married Penny Seeger (1943–1993), the youngest member of the musical Seeger family, which includes half-brother Pete Seeger. They had two children, Sonya and Rufus, and grandchildren Dio and Gabel.From 1972 to 1997, Cohen was a Professor of Visual Arts at SUNY Purchase College where he taught photography and drawing. The Grateful Dead song "Uncle John's Band," on Workingman's Dead, according to what Cohen calls "a true rumor," is supposed to have been written about Cohen and his band.The Library of Congress acquired John Cohen's archive, which includes his films, photographs, music recordings and other historic ephemera in 2011. The artist's work can also be found in the permanent collections of the following museums: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Neuberger Museum, Westchester, NY;New York Public Library, New York, NY; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.Cohen resided in the lower Hudson Valley of New York. He frequently performed with the Down Hill Strugglers.