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Roxy Coss: Future Is Female

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Jazz and politics go way back. One can argue that Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings in the 1920s were “hot" because he was seeking racial justice through musical talent and vision that exceeded everyone else's at the time. Most blues recordings of the 1930s and '40s also are political in that they were creative expressions of an impoverished “low-down" life experienced by many Americans during the Depression, particularly African-Americans in the South.

In the 1950s and beyond, jazz as an individualized form took up the fight of civil rights and injustice. Jazz began to fully express frustration with the slow pace of integration starting with Sonny Rollins's Airegin in 1954 (Nigeria spelled backward). Other recordings that took on the movement were Sonny's Freedom Suite (1958), Charles Mingus's Fables of Faubus (1959), Max Roach's We Insist! (1960), John Coltrane's Alabama (1963) and so many others including music by Yusef Lateef, Randy Weston and artists throughout the late 1960s and into the '70s.

Today, we are seeing jazz start to champion new socio-political movements. One terrific example is Roxy Coss's The Future Is Female (Posi-Tone). All 10 of the songs were composed by Coss and celebrate women's rapid shift from silence and acceptance to pro-activity and culture upheaval. The message is as powerful as it is personal. Song are like diary entries written with music.

It's about time. Jazz has an obligation to go beyond the dreary American songbook and the classic recordings and songs of earlier artists. Jazz is art, and art has obligations. To survive, jazz must remain relevant and have currency. It must have the courage to take on the culture and the grit to fight for what's right. Coss gets it.

Back to the music. Raised in Seattle, Coss began playing piano at age 7 and grabbed the saxophone at 9. At 11, she began listening to jazz and played in her school's jazz band. Today, she is highly acclaimed and often turns up on polls.

Coss also is founder and director of Women In Jazz Organization. In Coss's notes, she defines the organization as “a collective of professional jazz musicians who identify as women, gender neutral or non-binary. WIJO intends to help level the playing field, so that women and non-binary people have equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to the jazz community, leading to an improved and more rich, diverse, and successful art form."

What I love about Coss's playing is the fluidity of her articulation and her drive. You can hear it in every song. I also love the boldness of her original work and how it expresses the frustration women feel today as they struggle to be taken seriously, not to have their space invaded, and to be given a chance to be equal or better than their male counterparts.

Album highlights include:

  • Nevertheless, She Persisted is a hard-bop work that pays tribute to women who push through marginalization and reach a place where they make a difference.
  • Little Did She Know also is a hard-bop song. Coss wrote it in college, a place of wonderment and discovery but also, unfortunately, a place of male bonding and power plays, alcohol abuse and female belittlement and worse. 
  • Females Are Strong as Hell is a minor blues with the flavor of a Coltrane manifesto. Coss's playing is strong and striking.
  • On #MeToo, we get to hear the moaning quality of Coss's bass clarinet. There are flecks of Almost Like Being in Love, but the song wisely steers clear and Coss's bass clarinet delivers long ribbons of reflection on the #MeToo movement that began in October 2017 with the sexual-harassment allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein. What started as a revolutionary push-back against workplace male sexual aggression has widened to serve as a bulwark against female subjugation and antiquated behavior and language. As we know, the battlefield in two years is littered with those who crossed the line.
  • Feminist AF, according to Coss's notes, “is an anthem to feminine power." And here's where Coss really hits the nail on the head: “Entertainers have historically stayed neutral, but artists now have a responsibility to be advocates for equal rights." The song feels like a Sonny Rollins composition in its bounce and melodic articulation.
On The Future Is Female, Coss isn't gilding some radical chic concept to sell records. If the music was lousy, the point would be moot. The music on this album is superb and helps make the listener more open to what's going on. Sometimes notes can make that point more poignantly than words.

A word about Coss's band. Alex Wintz on guitar is excellent, with a poking attack and a John Scofield flavor in places, particularly on Ode to a Generation. On the song, Coss plays terrific soprano saxophone. Miki Yamanaka (above) on piano fills space with robust chords and a richly percussive feel. Rick Rosato on bass and Jimmy MacBride on drums sustain the feel and give the group a rhythmic togetherness. 

Jazz is political. The sooner jazz artists realize this, the more interesting new music will become. Coss's new album takes the fight to the jazz world and begins to musically address the issues that have kept women from fully flowering as worthy artists.   

JazzWax clips: Here's Nevertheless, She Persisted...



And here's Little Did She Know...

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This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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Track Listing

Nevertheless, She Persisted; Little Did She Know; She Needed A Hero, So That's What She Became; Females Are Strong As Hell; Mr. President; #MeToo; Choices; Feminist AF; Nasty Women Grab Back; Ode To a Generation.

Personnel

Roxy Coss
saxophone, tenor
Additional Instrumentation

Roxy Coss: saxophones, bass clarinet; Alex Wintz: guitar; Miki Yamanaka: piano; Rick Rosato: bass; Jimmy MacBride: drums.

Album information

Title: The Future is Female | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: Posi-Tone Records

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