Band’s work pays off
MUSIC TO THEIR EARS $40G win in musicians union contest is hard to beat
ONE LUCKY band struck just the right chord for success.
A group of five New York musicians played their way to a $40,000 prize in an organized labor contest meant to boost working performers and raise awareness for the sponsoring union.
The Roxy Coss Quintet, a progressive jazz ensemble led by its namesake saxophonist, was selected by a jury panel as winner of the inaugural Emerging Artists Project.
Coss — with guitarist Alex Wintz, pianist Miki Yamanaka, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Jimmy Macbride — beat dozens of entrants for the prize.
“I’m very excited,” Coss (photo) told the Daily News. “Just honored and grateful for the opportunity.”
Organized by Associated Musicians of Greater New York/American Federation of Musicians Local 802, the contest provides the winners with $10,000 a year for four years.
But that’s not all: There’s business-side advice and access to union rehearsal and recording spaces, provided by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at its Midtown facility, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.
Coss said the support will cover an assortment of costs for her band while allowing the quintet to take greater creative risks.
“I’m hoping that it actually allows me more energy and time for the craft,” Coss said. “The grant is going to be supporting gigs that maybe don’t pay as much as I would like.
“So we have more flexibility to take on projects focusing on the music rather than trying to make sure that everything we do financially and business-wise makes sense.”
Applicants submitted musical recordings along with their forward-looking business plan. The contest received 52 completed applications, with more than 400 musicians represented in the applicants’ ensembles.
Though Coss was already a union member, her band members were not. Sarah Cutler, a career harpist, music educator and executive board member of Local 802, said one of the award’s main goals was broadening the union’s reach.
“So we had a mix of people new to the union but at least one member already knows the value of being a member,” Cutler said.
Even before the contest, Coss was on the radar of Ted Nash, a Grammy-winning saxophonist and member of the prize jury.
“I walked into this restaurant and heard her play,” recalled Nash. “And just immediately I became a fan of her. I love her whole concept . . . I feel like I’ve kind of been following her ever since.”
But the winner’s resume went beyond her musical skills. She is the founder and director of the Women in Jazz Organization, an advocacy group hoping to help women find careers in the genre. “As a union, of course we find that extremely admirable and very attractive,” Cutler said. The grant capped a big week for Coss, who released her new album “The Future is Female” this past Friday. The grant drew applicants from a wide musical range, including a hip-hop act and a Bollywood soundtrack performance group. Cutler said the climate for live performance has changed so much over the years precisely because music has become so diverse. “This is one thing, from the union side, that we’re hoping this grant program would address,” she said. “Finding these young musicians out there who are practicing this new kind of music . . . genrebusting music and finding ways that we could be of service to them.”