Brad Cox
Brad Cox is a maverick pianist, composer, performer, entertainer, and serious artist all wrapped into a humble, soft-spoken package that people want to dance and make music with. From tango to jazz to free improv to ballet, Cox covers it all, and reinvents it each time he ventures out. I’d bet he could even play some Beethoven, but what would be the point? There is a chastity required of those old scores…old notes, which is the one thing he’s not so good at—old ideas are fodder, but never an end. He’s a “rules are here to serve us, not the other way around” kind of a guy when it comes to music. Cox’s method is like an interstate map—arteries, paths, trajectories, shapes—that he and those who adventure with him travel in detail. And it’s never about his ego. Whether in front of the People’s Liberation Big Band or behind the Owen/Cox Dance Group, he rises to the occasion, occasionally standing out front, but always swarming with the pack. A skilled bandleader who maximizes the talent of those with whom he plays, Cox draws out far more than a sum of parts. He plays well with others, and others play well back!
In the dictionary under “collaboration” there is a picture of Cox…or at least there should be. His work is a talent magnet because those who sit with him have a chance to adventure, whether on their instruments or with their bodies and souls. They get to “play” in every sense of the word. They contribute…not just notes, but personality…ideas…spirit. To sit the stand with Brad and make music is to be integral in the short-term community of the gig as well as the long-term community of Kansas City’s leading edge music. No waiters in tuxedos serving up the same notes from centuries-old humdrum. Sometimes you get finesse, sometimes a belt in the ears. The players flail, wail, sail, but never sit on the rail. And occasionally even the musicians are caught by surprise. In either case, you’ll thank him for the wakeup call of pounding drums and gentle hums.
Always walking the tight rope between composed and improvised conveys a sense of commitment and unmistakable sincerity between performer and listener. And in a world of over-produced Music McNuggets, Cox demonstrates that individual contribution within a collective artistic community is well worth the risk-taking. “Take some chances,” his music says, to both musician and audience. “Hang your ass out for a while, and grow.” There is exhilaration in crashing when the surrounding community can pick up the pieces and make magic out of it long before even the most astute spectators know what’s hit them.
Watching Brad conduct is like watching a Zen Master. There is no judgment, only observation-—sensing a flow and going with it. There is a knowing self in this music—authenticity at its most authentic, so refreshing in an over-rehearsed world. Someone cracks a note; the social collective picks it up, spins it out, and makes it perfect. There are no mistakes, only opportunities, and Cox is a musician that knows how to capitalize on each and every one!
Essay by Paul Rudy, a Rome Prize, Guggenheim, Fulbright and Wurlitzer Foundation Fellow and is Professor of Composition at Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance at University of Missouri-Kansas City.
