Jacques Kodjian جاك كودجيان was a pianist and composer born in Beirut by an Armenian family. He was considered to be one of the great innovators of Middle Eastern music even though this role has not been correctly attributed to him because of his work performed , many times , behind the scenes.
His most famous work is perhaps the album \"Oriental Mood - Modern Instrumental Hits From Lebanon\" released in 1972, in which he reinterpreted several songs written by the Rahbani brothers, with whom he often collaborated in his career. The remainder of his production consists of albums in which he performs classics of Armenian tradition and compositions performed in an innovative style with jazzy contamination.
He has worked closely with other Armenian musicians residing in Lebanon and founded a record company called \"JK\" in the '70s. Following the civil war involving the cedar country in the 1980s he moved to the United States, in Las Vegas, where he continued his work as a musician working, among the others, with singer Adiss Harmandyan, another Armenian musician from Lebanon, a pioneer of the Armenian pop song in America.
