# Jazz and politics go way back: Roxy Coss: Most blues recordings of the 1930s and ’40s also were political: Photos, Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/04/03/jazz-and-politics-go-way-back-roxy-coss-most-blues-recordings-of-the-1930s-and-40s-also-were-political-photos-video/
- Published: 2019-04-03T19:07:39+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Jazz and politics go way back. One can argue that Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and
Hot Seven recordings in the 1920s were political since they were a daring push to
be taken seriously and treated equally. **

Most blues recordings of the 1930s and ’40s also were 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.

[⌊R-758787-1504050080-7437.jpeg⌉⌊R-758787-1504050080-7437.jpeg⌉[
 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 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.

[⌊Roxy Coss - The Future Is Female cover large copy⌉⌊Roxy Coss - The Future Is Female
cover large copy⌉[
 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 album’s songs were composed by Coss and celebrate women’s rapid shift
from silence and acceptance to pro-activity and culture upheaval. Coss’s message
is as powerful as it is personal, and her songs are akin to essays written with 
music.

[⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.05.20 PM⌉⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.05.20 PM⌉[
 It’s about
time. Jazz has an obligation to go beyond the safety of the American songbook and
classic recordings and songs of earlier artists. Jazz is art, and art has obligations.
To survive, jazz must remain relevant and be current. It must have the courage to
take on society at large and the grit to agitate for what’s right. Jazz matters 
when it moves the cultural needle. 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 started listening to jazz and played in her school’s
jazz band. Today, she is highly acclaimed and turns up on polls.

[⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.08.58 PM⌉⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.08.58 PM⌉[
 Coss also
is founder and director of Woman 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.”

[⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.07.57 PM⌉⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.07.57 PM⌉[
 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, still a place of male wilding
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
male behavior and language. As we know, the battlefield in just 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.

[⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.02.01 PM⌉⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.02.01 PM⌉[
 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 sensitive and open to what’s going on. Sometimes
notes can make a point more poignantly than words.

[⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.12.36 PM⌉⌊Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.12.36 PM⌉[
 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 unleashes robust
chords and a richly sensitive feel. Rick Rosato on bass and Jimmy Macbride on drums
sustain the feel and unites the group with a rhythmic togetherness.

Jazz is political. Even when the music’s messages aren’t obvious or blunt, jazz 
at its best is arguing for positive change. Coss’s new album not only argues the
case but also takes the fight for women’s rights to the jazz community and begins
to address the issues that have kept women from fully flowering as worthy artists.

_Little Did She Know_…

![Screen Shot 2019-04-01 at 9.08.23 PM](https://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340240a44dbca4200c-
500wi)

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