Chris Cody is one of Australia’s foremost jazz pianists and has performed and recorded around the world. He began his musical career as a classical pianist in Australia, after being a finalist in the Roger Woodward Piano Scholarship at the age of 14. He gained a Bachelor’s Degree in music from the University of Sydney, and the Licentiate of Trinity College, London, with high distinction, for classical piano performance. He performed solo and chamber music at venues including the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Town Hall.

His musical versatility found expression in a wide variety of work situations, and he began to play with some of Australia’s leading jazz musicians such as James Morrison and Don Burrows. He played and composed for numerous musical productions in Sydney, worked with conductor Simone Young, and also wrote and directed the popular jazz cabaret 31 Celestial Flavors, that enjoyed repeat sell-out seasons in Sydney. He formed his own jazz quartet playing in local clubs, festivals and for Australian television and radio.

After gaining the Diploma in Jazz Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium and the Jazz Action Society Award for Best Jazz Composition in 1989, he left Australia to perform and tour in the USA and throughout Europe with international stars including Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Sunny Murray, Herb Geller, Stephano di Battista, Frank Lacey, Graham Haynes, Rhoda Scott, Marcel Azzola and Yves Robert. Cody recorded with numerous artists before forming his own highly successful group in Paris – the Chris Cody Coalition – and recording his debut album in 1996, released to international acclaim.

Returning to Australia in 1997, he performed at Australia’s leading jazz venues and festivals including The Basement, Bennett’s Lane, Manly and Wangarratta Jazz Festivals. He formed an Australian version of the Cody Coalition featuring Sydney’s finest jazz musicians and recorded the CD Oasis on Naxos Jazz, receiving glowing tributes from press around the world. Cody was a regular guest on radio programs, including Jazztrack, ABC FM, the 2BL Morning and Afternoon Shows, and The Planet (ABC). Chris Cody taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the Bachelor of Music program, as well as giving masterclasses at universities and conservatoriums around Australia, including the University of Sydney and the Australian Institute of Music. He also co-founded and directed the Sydney School of Piano. His music was selected for the in-flight jazz programs of several international airlines including Qantas. Chris also wrote music for theatre and cinema and appeared performing in the film Dr Jazz at the Sydney Film Festival. Chris was a featured guest and performer on numerous TV and radio programs around the world including France 2, Bernard Pivot, ABC TV and SBS TV. He hosted his own jazz radio program in Sydney, Dr. Cody‘s Hip Transplants and in his spare time was a surf lifesaver at Bronte Beach.

Since his return to France in 2000, Cody has performed at numerous clubs and festivals around France as well as in England, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Cuba, Austria, Algeria, Morocco, and Sweden. He was commissioned to compose and perform a suite of pieces for the inauguration of the Australian Music Centre in Paris and also composed and recorded the music for the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Moliere’s Don Juan at the Sydney Opera House. He has recently performed and recorded his own compositions for Radio France, France Culture, France Musique, ABC and SBS TV, and has been a featured guest of Claude Carrière’s national program Jazz Club on France Musique. He has also worked as a regular collaborator with the psycho-acoustic research team at IRCAM,  Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music.

Chris Cody recorded a new CD Midnight Tide (Cristal/Harmonia Mundi), with top American trombonist Glenn Ferris, released to international acclaim in 2003, and recently released Conscript (Nocturne, France), also with Glenn Ferris, receiving further accolades from press around the world. He continues to perform and record at major clubs and festivals throughout Europe and Australia at the head of his own group and as pianist with other leading ensembles.

His recent work includes performing for festivals in Marciac, Munich, Derry, Stockholm, Paris Quarters d’Ete, Melbourne, and Sydney. He has co-produced a documentary, “Paris Ville de Musique”, on music in France for Australian television, and has written the music for various short films and theatre, as well as creating and performing music for the American Academy of Dance Paris. Chris Cody most recently received a US Department of State Federal Award to tour Algeria and is currently preparing a new album of his recent compositions.

Cody’s music reveals not only his deep love of the jazz and classical traditions, but also the influence of contemporary  French and African musicians he has encountered in Paris, and its warmth, sense of space and humour touch a wide and diverse public around the world.

Pianist and composer Chris Cody has performed and recorded internationally for the last 25 years while based in Paris. He has headlined at many international festivals including Paris Quartiers d’Eté, London, Rome, Brussels Jazz Marathon, Marciac, Nantes, Ascona and Algiers and at a vast array of concert venues throughout the USA, Europe and Africa. He has worked with many outstanding international musicians including Rick Margitza, Roy Hargrove, Glenn Ferris, Carla Bruni, Annie Whitehead, Tina Arena, Michel Jonaz, Rhoda Scott and Herb Geller.

With eleven CDs of his music released on international labels he has received glowing reviews and featured on radio and television around the world, and has collaborated on over thirty other albums.

His compositions have been commissioned for the inauguration of the Australian Music Centre Paris, as well as for the Sydney Theatre Company, American Academy of Dance, Pillow Book Dance Company Pittsburg, and other French and American theatre companies, and he has composed the music for eight films, and several TV and Radio documentaries.

He was a member of the judging panel for the 2014 Freedman Fellowship, Australia.

“Magical!” Piano Magazine, France

“Exhilarating … a feast of melody… an inspiration never at fault” JazzHot, France

“Full of music and future!” Le Monde, France

“A marvellous climate, between subtle arrangements and vast spaces of improvisation…” Jazz Magazine, France

“Very luminous jazz!” Télérama, France

“This is jazz that takes off for the heights” Figaroscope, France

“A European sensibility with a nod to Debussy” Rolling Stone

“Splendidly rich and varied” Jazzwise, U.K

“A performance full of colour, humour and rhythmic movement.” Sydney Morning Herald, Australia

“A fine mix of superior technical talent and youthful inventiveness” Variety USA

AWARDS :

2010 US Department of State Federal Award, Tour of Algeria

1999 Finalist Australian National Jazz Awards

1995 Finalist Tremplin Jazz Val d’Oise

1989 Best Jazz Composition, Australian Jazz Action Society

1989 Jack Chrotowsky Prize for Jazz Piano

1979 Finalist, Roger Woodward Classical Piano Scholarship

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY :

Chris Cody Octet: Astrolabe, CCM

Chris Cody, Not My Lover, Wave Music

Jon Handelsman, Spirit House

– Bremner Duthrie: Kabarett 33 (pianist, arranger, producer)

– Paddy Sherlock, Electric Chop Shop (pianist, arranger)

– Tuesday Warren Luminescence Quartet: One Drop of Water

         – Tuesday Warren Luminescence Quartet: Si Seulement

– Jocelyn Moen, La Rouge Qui Bouge, (pianist, arranger, producer),(Roadsign)

– Wendy Lee Taylor, Compilation, Jewel, (Smoove Records, Japan)

– Chris Cody Coalition, Conscript (CHC001, Nocturne, France)

– Wendy Taylor: Lets Do It , pianist, arranger (Crystal CDM 16)

– Freyja: This Girl (pianist, arranger, producer), FR626

– Chris Cody Coalition with Glenn Ferris: Midnight Tide (Cristal/Harmonia Mundi)

– On The Corner: Four (Amrap)

– Chris Cody Coalition: Music for Don Juan (STC 501)

– Elisabeth Green, Biodiversity, (UWS BD02)

– Chris Cody Coalition: Oasis (Naxos 86018-2)

(APRA nomination for best jazz album 1998)

– The Many Faces of Naxos Jazz (Naxos 86040)

– Chris Cody Coalition (Quoi de Neuf Docteur 032)

– Skander Guetari : Alwan (Bynzart, SG06131928)

– Gervais Koffe: The African Diaspora (Forest)

– Caroline Lynn: The Shaman’s Kiss (Newmarket 3113.2)

– Paddy Sherlock and the Jump Jive Five: The Louis Jordan Show

– Paddy Sherlock and the Swingin Lovers

– Jeff Hoffman: Good Thing (MDM 101)

– Beigel Daisy Toasts (Virgin France)

– Stefan Hugye: Sympathisers (Xopf 020)

Concerts

with Carla Bruni, Michel Jonasz, Tina Arena, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Rick Margitza, Rhoda Scott, Herb Geller, Glenn Ferris, Stephano di Battista, Yves Robert, Sonny Murray, Jason Marsalis, Marcel Azzola, Enrico Macias, Stéphane Belmondo, James Morrison, Barry Altschul, Frank Lacy, Annie Whitehead, Ari Brown, Graham Haynes, Sarah Lazarus, Steve Lehman, Dave O’Higgins, Joe Lee Wilson, Daniel Yvinec, François Théberge, Paris Jazz Orchestra, Lisa Simone, Caneiro Edmundo, Alfredo Rodriguez, Brice Wassy, Rasul Siddik, Wayne Dockery, George Brown, Fabio Morgera, Sangoma Everett, Peter Gritz, Prakash Sharwal, Amar Sundy, Carl Schlosser, Larry Gillespie, Jean-Loup Lognon, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Vic Pitts, Gordon Brisker, Don Burrows, Sandy Evans, Adrian Mears, Tim Hopkins, Miroslav Bukovsky, James Greening, Phil Slater, Julien Wilson etc.

Selected Festivals 

Festivals of London, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Marciac, Derry, Dars Es Salaam, Festival de Francophonie, Stockholm, Europe Youth Festival, Antwerp,, Marseille, Fête de la Fraternité, Les Rendez-Vous de L’Erdre, Ascona, Nantes, Le Havre, Quartiers d’Ete, Musiques à Bagatelle, Jazz Balade, L’Art 2000 Paris, Xopf New Music Basle, St. Tropez, Mégeves, Viasse, Man Ray Festival, Deauville, Martin Luther King, UNESCO Charlie Parker, Marcoussis, St. Cergues, St. Gilles Croix de Vie, Pau, New Music Festival Paris, Arts et Mouvants, France, Sydney Festival, Wangaratta, Newcastle, Manly, South American Music Festival of Sydney, Australian Music Festival, Australian Music Convention, Bach and Beyond, Australian International Music Show, etc.