Todd Cochran (born September 3, 1951) is an American pianist, composer, keyboardist, essayist and conceptual artist. Early in his career he was also professionally known as Bayeté. Cochran started his career as a teenager with saxophonist John Handy. Two years later he joined vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s Quartet, and made his jazz recording debut composing and performing on a benchmark album for Hutcherson, "Head On" (on Blue Note Records) that featured a nineteen-piece ensemble. The recording was critically hailed as cross-pollinating the evolving contemporary modal jazz, avant-garde sound of the 1970s. Cochran’s first solo project "Worlds Around the Sun" became a #1 jazz album and marked his entree into the jazz discussion. From the mid 1970s forward Todd has experimented with and incorporated synthesizers, electronic and mixed-media concepts in his creative projects while collaborating with a wide range of artists in the genres of jazz, art rock, pop, R&B, and twenty-first-century classical.
Cochran's best-known jazz compositions include "At The Source" (Bobby Hutcherson), "Free Angela" (Bayeté Todd Cochran, Santana), "Eternal Worlds" Julian Priester, "My Pearl", "Geni-Geni" (Automatic Man), "Monte Carlo Nights" Grover Washington Jr., "Spanish Rose", "Back To Lovin' Again" (Freddie Hubbard), and "Secret Places" (Todd Cochran).
| Born | September 3, 1951
San Francisco, California U.S.A. |
| Genres | Jazz, contemporary classical,
jazz fusion, art rock, progressive pop, avant-garde |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, songwriter,
bandleader, record producer, arranger, essayist, conceptual artist, filmmaker |
| Instruments | Piano, electronic keyboards,
synthesizers |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Labels | Fantasy-Prestige, Island,
BMG, Atlantic, Sony, CBS, Omnivore, Sunnyside |
| Associated acts | John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson,
Rashaan Roland Kirk, Herbie Hancock, Santana, Michael Shrieve, Stanley Clarke, Freddie Hubbard, Bennie Maupin, Hubert Laws, Airto Moreira, Peter Gabriel, Joan Armatrading, Brand X, Maya Angelou, Pat Gleeson |
| Website | www.toddcochran.com |
He released two albums on Prestige Records in 1972 and 1973. He was keyboardist and lead singer of Automatic Man from 1976 - 1978. He was also a member of Fuse One, a coalition of jazz musicians who released two albums on CTI Records in 1980 and 1981.