Emmet Cohen WBGO Spotlight!

A 2021 broadcast performance for WBGO featuring pianist Emmet Cohen with tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana and bassist Russell Hall. The program includes a Benny Golson composition at 122 BPM in A-flat with its distinctive 34-bar ABCD form, an Emmet Cohen original at 260 BPM in G minor, a Harry Warren ballad at 54 BPM, and a Charlie Parker blues in F at 221 BPM. Aldana, the Chilean-born tenor saxophonist who won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2013, delivers substantial solos on the Golson piece, the Cohen original, and an extended eleven-chorus statement on the Parker blues. Cohen contributes piano solos on all four pieces, including a ten-chorus blues and a four-chorus exploration of his own up-tempo composition. Hall takes bass solos on the Cohen original and the Warren ballad. The concert documents the musical chemistry between Cohen and Aldana, two of the most prominent young voices in contemporary straight-ahead jazz. The WBGO broadcast context connects the performance to the storied tradition of Newark-based jazz radio that has supported the music for decades.