Pianist Emmet Cohen brings his “Miles & Coltrane at 100” program to Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo on May 17, 2026, celebrating the centennial birthdays of two artists who fundamentally reshaped the course of modern music.
Miles Davis, born May 26, 1926, and John Coltrane, born September 23, 1926, were not only contemporaries but collaborators whose partnership in the mid-1950s produced some of the most consequential recordings in jazz history. Their shared centennial year offers a rare opportunity to reflect on how two radically different artistic temperaments pushed each other toward greatness.
Emmet Cohen is among the most gifted pianists of his generation, a musician whose technical brilliance is matched by a deep reverence for the tradition he inhabits. In taking on the Davis and Coltrane centennial, Cohen brings both the pianistic firepower to honor this material and the interpretive intelligence to illuminate it from fresh angles.
Performing this program at Kleinhans Music Hall — the Saarinen-designed Buffalo landmark whose acoustics have served orchestral and chamber music for nearly a century — adds an additional layer of occasion.
For jazz listeners, this is essential. For anyone curious about why Miles Davis and John Coltrane still matter a century after their births, this is the place to find out.
Visit Kleinhans Music Hall for tickets and information.