Chris Cody Coalition
Conscript
(Nocturne)
Rating: ****
Sydney pianist Chris Cody’s CV contains an impressive list of global co-performers and a long string of accolades, beginning at age 14 when he was a finalist in the Roger Woodward Piano Scholarship.
Now based in Paris, his fifth CD comprising 11 original tracks has American trombonist Glenn Ferris accompanied by Cody’s bright, sparkling piano, with Bruno Rousselet on double bass and drummer Laurent Robin.
The music is wide and spacious with occasional humourous touches and tempo changes, yet always preserves strong rhythms.
Ferris’ trombone is outstanding: murmuring expressively in the low register for And Did She Follow? striding out jauntily on Conscript, or triple tonguing a driving staccato solo in Slippery.
Cody’s compositions are melodic – some are quite mainstream – with strong grooves, and the quartet articulates them with a precise integration especially noticeable in the bass and percussion collaboration on the title track.
The leader’s piano supplies organic harmonies and intelligent solos, perfectly supporting the trombone in its sometimes comical throwbacks to earlier styles as in Chromatose.
This review first appeared in The Weekend Australian.
