Emmet Cohen
Piano Solo on
Cantaloupe Island

About

Emmet Cohen closes the solo section with five choruses of piano on "Cantaloupe Island" at approximately 132 BPM, bringing his own pianistic perspective to Hancock's iconic funk composition. The 16-bar form in F provides a compact canvas, and Cohen fills it with inventive harmonic voicings and rhythmic patterns that honor the tune's groove-oriented origins while displaying his classical and jazz training. Following trumpet and saxophone solos by Randy Brecker and Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Cohen's five-chorus feature brings the funk performance to its conclusion with the energy and authority that define his role as bandleader and host.

Emmet Cohen was 30 to 31 years old at the time.