Chris Cosbey brings a New York City approach to the drums.

Chris started in 1965 with a band in Long Island, New York, called The Rogues. With this band he toured up and down the east coast promoting the then popular WABC AM radio station. He was 15 then and the rest of the band members were a wopping 18 years of age.

They used to set us up on a flatbed truck and the disk jockey would announce from up there. They'd go from one town to the next, from one shopping center (now they're called strip malls) to another playing rock n' roll”.

The band moved on without him as venues like The Barge and Hamptons clubs wouldn’t allow under age musicians in the door. This was back when the music union was strong and dictated many of the rules that clubs had to follow.

Chris moved up to the Binghamton area where he established himself as the drummer in Dirty Red and The Bandana Boys locking down Friday and Saturday nights at the local popular club called The Honky Tonk occasionally working with John Lennon’s Canadian band Elephant’s Memory.

Morphing into a fairly famous jazz band called "Spaces" bringing fusion and modern jazz to the clubs in the upstate area.During the late 70’s, moving to Manhattan, he spent 2 years with Andrew Cyrille working on his jazz chops 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, erasing that interpretation of the rock ride sound that was stylish back then (more about this on Lessons page).

Chris spent 7 years playing in and out of jazz situations in N.Y.C.. He played the loft gigs and working with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Don Moye, Jack Dejohnette and Karl Berger,he connected with Creative Music Studios in ’76 studying with Jerome Cooper, famous for partnering with Leroy Jenkins. He moved to San Francisco in 1985.

Playing jazz as band leader in the bay area and holding down weekly spots at Skips and the Dogpatch he became a local jazz regular on call. His band, CC5, cut a cd of original and progressive jazz compositions and is available here.

He seems to like to sit right on the edge, and if you could imagine a beat which has a length, he's usually riding out on the front (sort of like hanging ten on a surfboard).

His experimentation has always been new and exciting, his incorporation of experimental and straight ahead has been coined as tasty with his own sound and character.

Establishing himself as a cornerstone of the jazz movement in SF, he joined forces with Magda Martine to form a killer group and recorded a CD that is also available here.

Relocating to San Diego he is playing various gigs and composing new material for several CDs that have been in the works for a while. Among them is a project that has given him great notoriety as he has collaborated with the great vocalist Magda Martine for a special works that includes jazz interpretations of the Great American Songbook.