Houston Press Music Awards Preview – Cody’s

By Mark Towns
Published: Houston Press, Thursday, July 10, 1997

Cody’s has had its ups and downs over the last 20 years. In its late ’70s/early ’80s heyday, the club’s original Montrose location featured live jazz six nights a week, often by a local supergroup that included the now internationally renowned Kirk Whalum on sax and local luminaries Paul English on piano and Scott Gertner on bass. The club was something of a celebrity hangout, with members of the Rockets, Oilers and Astros showing up on a regular basis. In the early ’90s, Cody’s continued to move forward, opening locations in Galveston and Rice Village. But the growth turned out to be premature. Two years later, the club’s owners, the Taylor brothers, had a falling-out. One sibling got the Montrose location, the other got the club in the Village, and the Galveston Cody’s closed.

Today, the Village location is the only remnant of the Cody’s empire. Mostly, it features live funk, fusion and rhythm and blues, though every once in a while, true jazzers such as Tod Vullo show up. So while Cody’s is no longer exclusively a jazz club, its stellar reputation thrives on the weight of its history.

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