You don’t have to have a lengthy career to make it on Cultural Attaché’s Icons 2025. For pianist/composer Paul Cornish all it took was a mightily impressive debut album, You’re Exaggerating!
It’s no exaggeration to say that Cornish knocked it out of the park with his debut album. Jazz fans know him from his work with Joshua Redman. With his first record, fans can hear exactly how deep his knowledge of music goes and how unique his perspective is on it all.
Across its tracks, Cornish and his trio use composition as a springboard rather than a script, exploring songs that transform each night on stage. For Cornish, improvisation isn’t simply a skill but a philosophy: an openness to the unexpected, both in music and in life.
Paul Cornish has studied at the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, toured with artists like Redman and shared stages with peers shaping the next generation of jazz. Yet he speaks as much about community as he does about personal ambition, championing the work of his fellow musicians and advocating for arts education in public schools.
We spoke on September 14th which was just after I saw Paul Cornish at The Promontory in Chicago 12 days earlier. This interview was published on September 16th.
To read the print version of this interview with Paul Cornish, which includes three music videos for You’re Exaggerating!, please go HERE.
Photo: Paul Cornish in the Cultural Attaché Interview