Oct 17, 2023 3:36 PM
Carla Bley, Provocative Composer-Pianist, Dies at Age 87
With her iconic bangs, sharp features and free-flowing sense of the absurd, Carla Bley, who died Oct. 17 of brain…
Roxy Coss is set to issue Quintet on Aug. 23.
(Photo: Desmond White)Saxophonist and bandleader Roxy Coss has released a batch of thoughtful recordings on the Origin and Posi-Tone labels, worked frequently in the company of top-tier players and in 2017 founded the Women in Jazz Organization.
She still had time to put together a new album.
Her new disc, Quintet, is slated for release Aug. 23 through Outside In. Below is a premiere for the New York bandleader’s arrangement of “All Or Nothing At All.”
Coss always has drawn on well-known tunes—slotting in “Crazy” among a batch of familiar jazz fare on Chasing The Unicorn. The arrangement here is a bit jauntier than on older, vocal versions, though, with Coss turning to soprano to dash off solos amid the Latin-tinged arrangement.
The rest of Quintet constitutes something of a self-assessment, as Coss returns to previously recorded material, cherry-picking bopish tunes like “Mr. President” and “Females Are Strong As Hell” for reappraisal. She’s in good company throughout: Pianist Miki Yamanaka, guitarist Alex Wintz, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Jimmy Macbride all contribute. And the troupe is set for a pair of album-release dates on Sept. 6–7 at Smalls Jazz Club in New York.
For more information about the album, visit the Outside In website. DB
Bley told DownBeat in 1984: “I’m just a composer, and I use jazz musicians because they’re smarter, and they can save your ass in a bad situation. … I need all the help I can get.”
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