An excellent tenor saxophonist and a superior arranger/composer,
Al Cohn was greatly admired by his fellow musicians. Early gigs included associations with
Joe Marsala (1943),
Georgie Auld,
Boyd Raeburn (1946),
Alvino Rey, and
Buddy Rich (1947). But it was when he replaced
Herbie Steward as one of the "
Four Brothers" with Woody Herman's Second Herd (1948-1949) that
Cohn began to make a strong impression. He was actually overshadowed by
Stan Getz and
Zoot Sims during this period but, unlike the other two tenors, he also contributed arrangements, including "The Goof and I." He was with
Artie Shaw's short-lived bop orchestra (1949), and then spent the 1950s quite busy as a recording artist (making his first dates as a leader in 1950), arranger for both jazz and non-jazz settings, and a performer. Starting in 1956, and continuing on an irregular basis for decades,
Cohn co-led a quintet with
Zoot Sims. The two tenors were so complementary that it was often difficult to tell them apart.
Al Cohn continued in this fashion in the 1960s (although playing less), in the 1970s he recorded many gems for Xanadu, and during his last few years, when his tone became darker and more distinctive,
Cohn largely gave up writing to concentrate on playing. He made many excellent bop-based records throughout his career for such labels as Prestige, Victor, Xanadu, and Concord; his son
Joe Cohn is a talented cool-toned guitarist. ~ Scott Yanow