Tal Cohen: with Mikalo Kasha

Tal Cohen’s unique piano style owes its roots to the Jewish folk songs and classical music he played in his formative years growing up in Israel. After moving to Perth at the age of 16, Tal received a music scholarship at Churchlands Senior High School. Upon graduating, he continued his music studies at the prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where he completed a bachelor degree, honours and masters in jazz performance. Tal began performing nationally in 2010 with his involvement in the successful Australian tour of the Jamie Oehlers Quartet, which included shows at Sydney’s 505 and Melbourne’s Bennett’s Lane and Uptown jazz clubs. In the same year he also performed with New York saxophonist, George Garzone. In July 2011, Tal performed at the Melbourne Jazz Festival in the “Jamie Oehlers Quartet” which featured Australia’s Jamie Oehlers on saxophone as well as highly acclaimed New York drummer Ari Hoenig, and Sam Anning on bass. The group then went on to record the album “Smoke and Mirrors” after which the group toured around Australia in August 2012. Tal has also had the honour of playing with iconic modern jazz bassist, Bob Hurst in Melbourne and Perth shows in June 2012, alongside Jamie Oehlers and drummer, Jacob Evans. “Yellow Sticker”, Tal’s first album as a leader, was released in December 2011. Consisting largely of original tunes, it showcases some of Perth’s finest musicians with Jamie Oehlers on saxophone, Chris Tarr on drums and Pete Jeavons on bass. The album enjoyed an enthusiastic reception from local audiences and the Australian newspaper gave it an impressive 4-star review. The album has already had extensive radio airplay in Australia and on radio stations around Los Angeles and was also featured in full length on Israeli radio station, Reshet Bet in April 2012. To promote the album, Tal teamed up with Oehlers again and in October 2012 the duo played shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, joined by highly acclaimed musicians