Kathy Kosins

Kathy Ann Kosins is an American singer specializing in jazz and R&B; she is also an ASCAP award-winning songwriter and modern abstractionist painter. Kosins has recorded several CDs under her own name and was first known as a singer of soul, rock, and pop having worked extensively with the bands Was (Not Was), Slingshot and recording artist Michael Henderson. In more recent years, she has become an internationally known jazz singer; as a multi-media artist she also incorporates her painting into those live presentations.

Biography

Early years and education Kathy Kosins was born in Highland Park, Michigan to Marilyn and Harry Kosins. Her father was a well-known clothing store owner (Kosins Clothes) who dressed many of the Motown acts and music personalities. Kosins worked in her father's store as a child and was heavily influenced by being able to meet prominent pop artists, music personalities such as Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, Jerry Vale, Dinah Washington, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, Lou Rawls, and the Four Tops. Kosins was 24 when she met David Weiss (David Was) and Don Fagenson (Don Was). The recording was played on over 250 jazz stations, her debut jazz offering reached the Top 20 in the Gavin Report. The CD Vintage was released in 2005 and again she received very good reviews and airplay. Through a collaboration with singer Kevin Mahogany and singing with him on his Big Joe Turner Show (Mahogany's Kansas City Revue and the Detroit-Memphis Experience), Kosins signed in 2005 with Mahogany Jazz; she toured Europe with Mahogany in 2009. Vintage and her most recent recording The Space In Between (2013) are with the Mahogany Jazz Records label.

In 2010 Kosins decided to take a new approach by releasing singles quarterly under the new Mahogany Digital label, rather than an entire CD every few years. "If a live audience falls in love with a new song, I can record and release it to radio while the music is fresh and hot. This is something you can't do if you're committed in advance to a full album release," said Kosins. Also she adds, "Vocalists are performing music that they, not their parents, grew up with. They feel this music in a convincing way and are destined to widen their audience with music that is both appealing and legitimate."

In more recent years Kosins has utilized the talents of arrangers Paul Keller, Jack Cooper, and Tamir Hendelman for her big band book, the show Rhapsody in Boop and the 2012 CD release To The Ladies Of Cool with Resonance. To The Ladies Of Cool is a contemporary exploration of the West Coast School of Cool that focuses on the music of Anita O'Day, June Christy, Chris Connor and Julie London with music orchestrated by Hendelman for jazz quintet. Her tune "Hershey's Kisses" was co-authored with Johnny Mandel (from To The Ladies Of Cool) and also his "Little Black Night Gown", which first became famous with Gerry Mulligan's big band. Her show Rhapsody in Boop was premiered with the Jazz Orchestra of the Delta and has been performed in numerous venues in the United States.

Painting Kosins is a painter of modern abstractions and the works she produces are visual interpretations of audio recordings by the jazz greats. She started painting in 1990, around the time her father died, but it had nothing to do with his death.

Artists worked with (partial list)

Aaron Goldberg Reuben Rogers Eric Harland Peter Bernstein Robert Hurst Cyrus Chestnut Matt Wilson Randy Brecker Javon Jackson Larry Goldings James Moody Kevin Mahogany Bernard Purdie Eric Harland Red Holloway Reuben Wilson Donald Vega Ben Wolfe Eric Marienthal Mitch Ryder Chuck Findley

Discography