Saxophonist, composer, bandleader, educator, and activist Roxy Coss joins me to discuss how she maintains her wellbeing through a jam-packed, multifaceted career. She also speaks about her Women In Jazz Organization, actions we can take to better support women and non-binary musicians, and how happiness is a choice.
At every level we need to be asking: “Does my band/label/whatever you work in look like the general population of America?” If not we have work to do.
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Actionable Advice
- Everyone’s path is different. Especially in this field there’s no set pattern you can follow. This is definitely an important point I don’t reiterate enough. These interviews offer a variety of perspectives to base your own path on.
- One thing that’s important is just talking about it. That’s not an answer that anyone likes to hear because they want to have a solution and do something. But it’s important because as soon as we stop talking about it we stop making progress. We stop realizing it’s still an issue. IT’S STILL A HUGE ISSUE, and we need to talk about it all the time. We need to talk about what those issues look like because that’s going to point us towards solutions naturally.
- Ask women in your life what their experience is: Do you experience discrimination? Do you experience harassment? Do you feel like you’ve had limited opportunities? Make that space for women to actually guide the conversation and don’t feel like you have the answer. You’re not making the space to give them advice. You’re making that space to start to understand and to listen.
- I hate the music school dichotomy of performance or education. There are so many other things you can do in music. We need people writing great reviews for albums. We need people booking acts at venues. We need people opening venues. We need people running festivals. We need people doing podcasts and blogs. We need people curating playlists. There are so many jobs in this field, and we need strong capable people who are well versed and educated about the music itself to fill these.
WIJO
- Women In Jazz Organization intends to help level the playing field in Jazz, so that women and non-binary people have equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to Jazz, leading to an improved and more rich, diverse, and successful art form.
- WIJO is committed to honoring Black Americans as the creators of Jazz.
- WIJO aims to improve the experience of women and non-binary individuals through focused work on three main goals:
- – To empower individuals in the organization
- – To foster inclusivity, solidarity, and strengthen the intersectional community of women and non-binary people in Jazz
- To address inequalities in Jazz culture and on the Jazz scene through activism
In This Episode
- Roxy Coss: Website, Quintet, Facebook, Instagram
- Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way
- Nick Finzer: Outside In Music
- Happiness Is a Choice
- Roxy’s Blog: Growth Post
- Jazz Education Network
- Women In Jazz Organization
- Aubrey Johnson
- WKCR
- Mary Lou Williams
- Stephen Covey: 7 Habits of Highly Successful People
- Pascal Pahl (Audio Production Work Available): Instagram, Facebook