Al Cohn

As a teenager, Al Cohn was already lugging his tenor saxophone to gigs with Joe Marsala and Georgie Auld. A forward-thinking musician, Cohn worked extensively in big bands during the mid-to-late 1940s, most famously as a member of Woody Herman’s Four Brothers band. He subsequently played with Artie Shaw and Elliot Lawrence, before teaming up with Zoot Sims in 1957, a partnership that lasted into the '80s. Cohn’s writing continued throughout this time and he was responsible for scoring a number of stage musicals. A warm-toned melodic player, Cohn was stylistically in the mould of Lester Young but incorporated into his music many elements that were his own. Towards the end of his life he sometimes worked with his guitarist son Joe.