{"id":7108,"date":"2015-11-24T22:29:13","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T06:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=7108"},"modified":"2015-11-24T22:48:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T06:48:28","slug":"remembering-al-cohn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2015\/11\/remembering-al-cohn\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Al Cohn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the birthday of Al Cohn (1925-1988), a major tenor saxophonist and one of the most admired composers and arrangers in modern jazz. Cohn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career began with Joe Marsala\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s big band when he was 18. He \"AL<\/a>played and wrote for several of the most important bandleaders of the forties and fifties, among them Boyd Raeburn, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw and Elliott Lawrence. He replaced Herbie Steward in the Herman band\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Four Brothers saxophone section, joining Zoot Sims, Stan Getz and Serge Chaloff. <\/p>\n

Cohn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s style, like that of many of his saxophone contemporaries, owed much to Lester Young. Toward the end of his life, he added darker colors to his tone and firmer spring to the rhythm of his phrasing. Employing a variety of rhythm sections over the years, Cohn and Sims were one of the best known tenor sax duos in all of jazz. Here they are at Birdland in 1960 with pianist Mose Allison, bassist Bill Crow and drummer Nick Stabulas in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ah Moore.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cohn named the ballad after his first wife, the singer Marilyn Moore. Sims plays the introduction. Cohn plays the melody and the solo, with occasional obbligato by Sims. <\/p>\n