The concert opens with a solo piano performance of Richard Rodgers's show tune from Oklahoma!, with Emmet Cohen delivering three choruses over the expansive 40-bar AABAC form at 148 BPM. The unaccompanied format lets Cohen establish the evening's tone before the guest horns arrive, a recurring approach in the Live From Emmet's Place series. The 40-bar form is longer than most standards, giving each chorus room to develop. Rodgers composed the piece with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II for their 1943 musical, and its cheerful, clip-clopping melody has been a jazz piano favorite since Ahmad Jamal's popular recordings. Cohen's solo treatment strips the tune to its harmonic essence, setting up the contrast with the fuller ensemble sound that arrives on the next number. The evening will build from this intimate opening to feature both Randy Brecker and Chad Lefkowitz-Brown in an intergenerational horn summit.
