Chris Cody's High 5

Historical article recovered from a Wayback capture dated 2018-02-24.

Chris Cody

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 performed at venues including the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Town Hall. 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.

His musical versatility found expression in a wide variety of work situations, including playing with some of Australia’s leading jazz musicians such as James Morrison, Sandy Evans and Don Burrows. He formed his own jazz quartet and played in clubs, festivals and for Australian television and radio. Chris Cody played and composed for numerous musical productions, and he also wrote and directed the popular jazz cabaret 31 Celestial Flavors.

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 the USA and throughout Europe with musicians including: Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Sunny Murray, Herb Geller, Stephano di Battista, Frank Lacy, Graham Haynes, and Francois Theberge. Cody recorded with numerous artists including Stefan Hugye, Jeff Hoffman, and Beigel Daisy Toasts. He then formed his own highly successful group in Paris - the Chris Cody Coalition - and recorded his debut album of original compositions in 1996.

After his return to Australia in December 1996, he again 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 and recorded the CD Oasis on Naxos Jazz, receiving international acclaim. Cody has been sought after as a guest on radio programs, including Jim McLeod’s Jazztrack, ABC FM, the 2BL Morning and Afternoon Shows, Radio France, and France Culture. Chris Cody has taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the Bachelor of Music program, as well as giving masterclasses at universities and conservatoriums around the country. His music is also played on the inflight programs of several international airlines including Qantas. He continues to write music for theatre and cinema and recently appeared performing in the film Dr Jazz at the Sydney Film Festival. Chris was special guest and performer on Bernard Pivot’s French arts program, Bouillon de Culture, on national TV in France, Australia and around the world. His music was performed live and used for the credits.

Since his return to France in 2000, Cody has performed at leading clubs and festivals around the country as well as in Germany, Switzerland, England and Cuba. He composed and performed a suite for the inauguration of the Australian Music Centre in Paris and composed and recorded the music for the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Moliere’s Don Juan at the Sydney Opera House. He has also recently performed and recorded for ABC and SBS TV, and was the subject of Claude Carriere’s program Jazz Club on France Musique. He recently recorded his latest CD Midnight Tide (Cristal/Harmonia Mundi), co-starring top American trombonist Glenn Ferris (released June 2003).

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

“It was quite a challenge to try and whittle down over three thousand concerts or so that I must have attended to forty, then twenty, and then finally just five!

The exercise made me think about what are the necessary elements that have to be present for a concert to be really successful, memorable, one that leaves a lasting mark or influence on me.

The music and compositions have to be really strong of course, while the performers and their degree of preparation and inspiration play a huge role, as do the public and its openness and warmth, the venue and concert context, and the energy and vibe on the night.

All of these can be affected dramatically by the sound and sound engineers, the seating, the air, how much alcohol has been consumed amongst many other factors!

Of course, the requirements for a good jazz concert are not all the same as those for a blues, rock, or classical concert.

There is a large dose of personal taste involved in all these things, but the concerts that stand out the most are those where I was able to stop being aware of all the external factors as mentioned above and really just let go and be completely in the music, its journey and emotions”.

1. SVIATOSLAV RICHTER – Theatre de Chatelet, Paris, 1992

I was very excited as I made my way to the theatre on a cold night: at long last I was going to hear my favourite legendary concert pianist whose recordings of Bach, Schubert, Brahms, and all the Russian composers had given me so much. He walked on stage, blinked and bowed, and then settled somewhat awkwardly at the piano with a small desk lamp to light the music. He often used the music and he said that it kept him true to the score. His approach was a contrast to many other concert pianists. He began to play. For the first five minutes, I kept saying to myself: “this is Richter, at last I’m hearing him, how great he is!”, but then as the music and his completely self-effacing, non-histrionic approach to performance took over, I started thinking about the composer (Beethoven) and how great he was. Finally all these thoughts just went away and I just got swept up in the music and its ideas, colours and directions, no longer thinking about who or what it was. When the concert finished, I was surprised by the loud applause having forgotten my surroundings, and I walked home as if still in a dream, with the music reverberating for weeks.

2. JOE HENDERSON QUARTET – Fat Tuesday, New York, April 1990

The club was packed, hot and stuffy, and there was a real air of anticipation. The band walked on and I remember noticing how small Al Foster was and that he was wearing leather pants! Joe counted off and away they went - they burned from the very first note to the last, there was this amazing furious energy they put out. All the band members played with a terrible intensity, as if their lives depended on every note and nothing else mattered. They played from their guts but with a great concentration at the same time. The audience members were either sitting with their eyes shut, simply gob-smacked, or sort of moaning and groaning along in ecstasy. I was blown away and felt as if I had been purged by their fire! What a great way to discover the New York way of playing jazz!

3. PAUL BLEY/GARY PEACOCK DUO – New Morning, Paris 1992

The New Morning is a really good room in Paris, holds about four hundred people and is a mix between concert room and club, with a long bar down one wall. All the great jazz musos have played here although in recent years it is programming more rap and reggae, and less jazz. These two musicians have known each other for years, and their mutual trust and confidence came through as they simply improvised all night. Paul would throw out ideas, Gary would respond, or play against them, and every idea seemed to work and fuel further ideas. Paul Bley didn’t seem very virtuosic in the commonly understood way, but had so many rhythmic and melodic ideas, that all seemed fresh and effortless. It was all there in the music: humour, light, darkness – they conveyed many different emotions that night. They didn’t speak to the audience until the end, and seemed to really enjoy the moment of the concert, like two good friends catching up over dinner.

4. THE BENDERS – Jenny’s Wine Bar, Chippendale, Sydney, about 1984, With Dale Barlow, Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton, Tony Buck.

I was still pretty new to jazz when I discovered this band, and until then had only heard live jazz in Sydney at Soup Plus, the Basement, or Hyde Park, so this tiny venue with these young guys not a lot older than me, playing exciting fast modern Australian jazz really opened my eyes and ears. Dale was the young lion tearing into his solos and no-one else played like him at the time. The band had a very young contemporary feel and you could hear that they had listened to and absorbed a wide range of music but had come up with their own sound and were bending some of the jazz rules of the time! They were a very welcome change to some of the 70s style bands around at that time.

5. KEITH JARRETT TRIO – Town Hall, New York 1990

Well, they put this concert out as a record, so you can check it out for yourself! What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this trio and even this concert? Once Keith had got over someone sneezing in the audience (it wasn’t me), they played a great concert of standards, getting into some really good grooves and vamps, listening intently, and playing as one. Incredible piano trio playing! (I also really liked Ahmad Jamal’s trio that I heard in Paris, but their music was a lot more prepared, and less spontaneous). “So that’s my top five live gigs, and they got in ahead of the likes of Miles Davis, Freddy Hubbard, Oscar Peterson, Cecil Taylor, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Charlie Hayden, Bill Frisell, Lester Bowie, Henry Threadgill, Jimmy Smith – well , you get the idea. I’ve been extremely lucky to have heard many great concerts. And the last really good one? – some young Norwegian guys in Stockholm two months ago ripping into their own pieces with vigour and enthusiasm!”