BIOGRAPHY
Called “a masterful pianist” by the New York Times, Chris Coogan is a composer, performer, teacher, choir director and producer, rooted in the jazz and gospel traditions.
During his career, Chris has appeared with such eminent musicians as Stevie Van Zandt, Sal Salvador, Ronnie Spector, Harold Danko, Darlene Love, Donna Summer, Phoebe Snow, and Ben E. King, among others, as well as arranging for Teo Maceo, producer for the late Miles Davis. His gospel credentials include performances with Take 6, Maya Angelou and Richard Smallwood.
Chris has appeared on television's Celebrity Jeopardy and the Arsenio Hall Show and has performed at Manhattan's Blue Note and the Montreaux Jazz Festival. He has written and performed original gospel music for a PBS documentary about evangelist Amy Semple McPherson, and worked with Emmy-award winning composer Brian Keane, who featured Chris on piano in the BBC show Copper.
A Weston, Connecticut native, Chris leads the Chris Coogan Quartet, a jazz ensemble whose repertoire includes straight-ahead jazz, fusion jazz and boogie-woogie. He is also director of the Good News Gospel Choir.
Additionally, he teaches jazz piano and leads gospel workshops throughout the country to help reinvigorate church and community choirs. “I see myself as a catalyst who uses the medium of music to bring people together”,
Coogan's first jazz album, S'Funky, containing his original songs, was released in 1995 and re-released in 1999. It features the song Cranberry Isle which took the top jazz prize in the 1997 John Lennon Songwriting Competition. Other discography include the gospel albums Joy (1997) and Light a Candle (1999) and jazz albums Jazz by Coogan (2001), and Stars & Wind (2010).