COCO YORK

“Every single thing I’ve done is because so many doors opened. But I trusted enough to walk through them,” says CoCo York with a grin. We’re sitting comfortably on a large sofa at Dan Sumner’s music studio, also known as Fort Sumner. For the last few months, York and Sumner have been collaborating as a duo, sometimes alongside his band, taking the stage at the Downtown Monroe Art Crawl, the West Monroe Brown Bag Concert Series, and most recently at Flying Tiger’s Beatles tribute concert Love, Love Me Brew. York continues, “I didn’t have to know what was on the other side. I just knew that as long as I have crossed to the other side I can make it happen.” Since she left her hometown of Strong, Arkansas, she has followed the raging current of her heart, pursuing a music profession that has taken her to six continents, performing in each at least twice. During that impressive trajectory, a plethora of doors have opened for York, a professional vocalist with an electric and seductive voice that has been described as “a jazz-angel whispering rhythms in your ear.” Now back in her childhood stomping grounds, York still feels like she is living a fairy tale. “I’m like Alice in Wonderland,” says York, taking a beat. “Except, her name is CoCo.”

article by Vanelis Rivera | photography by Andrew Bailey

At four years old, York started taking piano lessons because she wanted to follow in her brother’s footsteps. So, after she finished high school in Farmerville, Louisiana, she set out to study piano at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge. When she showed up for her piano audition, she also auditioned for voice on a dare from a peer. “I think they were trying to make fun of the fact that I was so young and innocent from the country. And I’d be rejected.” At that point, she had never had formal voice lessons. But ultimately, the joke was on them as she was accepted into both programs. “Once I actually started singing, I really fell in love with it… it was something that reached my soul in a way that playing piano didn’t. I had to put all of me in something, rather than just my fingers in technique,” she reveals.

The turning point of her education occurred when Mattiwilda Dobbs visited Southwestern to perform a concert. She was a coloratura soprano and the first black woman to receive a long-term performance contract and to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the first black singer to play a lead role at the San Francisco Opera. “I didn’t know that much about opera, although I was learning arias, and all this kind of stuff. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m a country girl,” she reveals. York remembers Dobbs as a thin, delicate-looking woman; yet, watching her on stage was awe-inspiring. “I had never heard anyone sing  like her…And then once I heard her, I was like, ‘Oh my God. What would it be like to have lessons under her?” When the concert was over, she went over to Dobbs to chat with her, and “of course” get her autograph. Following that seminal meeting, she went to her vocal professor, Dr. Atkins, to ask about the probability of studying under Dobbs. “Actually, she’s a friend of mine,” he responded. “I think I can set that up for you.” And so, she set out to convince her parents to let her attend The University of Texas at Austin.

Though her father was a bit trepidatious, thanks to some helpful nudges from her mother, York soon found herself packing for the drive to Austin. One of her first endeavors upon arrival was to visit Dobbs at her office. York re-introduced herself and reiterated the message her former voice professor had given her concerning her new tutelage under Dobbs. “Who is Dr. Atkins?” asked Dobbs, following with, “I don’t even know who you are talking about.” York was floored. No communication had ever been made. She was stuck in Texas. While making plans to return to Southern, she decided to return to Dobbs in order to thank her and express her disappointment in not being able to study with her. Dobbs was moved and offered to audition her before she left for Louisiana. York was accepted, though she ended up having to attend Huston-Tillotson University because she was too late for registration at UT. 

Between her college courses, extracurricular music events, and Dobbs’ instruction, she was expanding her vocal range and her bravado. So, when Dobbs accepted another Artist in Residence position at Spellman College in Atlanta, York was bent on following. There, she met a jazz musician who helped her transition from opera to Jazz. Upon graduation, her then-boyfriend encouraged her to move with him to New Orleans because he had just landed a job at the Fairmont Hotel. The pair got married, had a baby, and York began gigging and concurrently found herself falling in love with New Orleans music despite the challenge it presented. “If I was going to sing jazz and blues and pop, I had to now unlearn the rules, all the things that I had worked so hard to learn for opera,” she reveals.

The first gig she ever got was on Bourbon Street. She went to the Absinthe Bar with friends. Unbeknownst to her, one of her friends went up to the musicians on stage and asked them if her friend “who sings” could join them. After York’s set, she was offered the job, replacing the former in-house singer. “I was really enthralled for myself for my first gig, but I was not happy about how that happened,” says York. Adding, “I soon got over it!” Her stint in New Orleans was a hustle, often going from one early afternoon gig to a late-night show which often ended close to four in the morning. “Oh yeah, that’s New Orleans.”

On one such gig, she met the woman that would be responsible for her first voyage across the Pacific. “So many people come up to you. So many people want to chat with you. So many people got something to say or whatever,” says York, explaining why she initially brushed off the eager fan, asking her to wait until after the show. York didn’t expect her to still be around when the show was over, but the woman was still there and approached with a proposal. “I just love your voice,” said the woman, “Why don’t you come to Australia?” York’s interest was piqued, particularly because at the time her marriage was “going left.” Even then, she took the offer lightly, giving a snippy answer: “Yeah, you set it up and I’ll go.” A couple of months later, she was on a plane to Sydney. 

Moving to a “strange country” was like being in the twilight zone. “Everything is the complete opposite,” she says, referring to driving on the left side of the road while navigating from the right side of the car. “And, plus, I’m living with a lady who I don’t know.” All that to say, there was an adjustment period. When she finally settled, her mother brought her son, and she began working in the trendiest places in the city. In the midst of working at a chic restaurant and piano bar, some travelers from Holland heard her and asked her to visit their country. “So, they sent me a ticket.” Though the project they invited her to fell through, York decided to stay in Northern Europe with her son. With the help of a connection, she was able to find gigs, which never ceased to roll in. Once after a show, a music student from the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music asked York whether she could take lessons from her. After a few sessions, the student invited her to lead a few vocal workshops at the school, which would eventually lead to a full-time position as a vocal teacher, a job she would have for almost 15 years. 

“I was just on top of the world, actually. Just sitting on top of the world doing the very thing that I love to do,” enthuses York. Probably one of York’s busiest periods, she took her experiences in stride. She began working for American Voices, a nonprofit organization providing cultural exchange through the performing arts in nations emerging from conflict and isolation. Her work with them resulted in travel to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, among other Central Asian Countries. On these trips, she would play with local musicians, who unfortunately didn’t always welcome her warmly. While in Afghanistan, where she was the second American after Duke Ellington to perform there, her presence was barely greeted. “Here I am, a woman, black woman. And they don’t know what to do, because I don’t know if anybody even told them that a woman was going to be involved in this show,” she recalls. “When they saw me…their eyes got big.” The Afghani musicians proceeded to sternly shake hands with the visiting male musicians, but when they got to York, they didn’t want to touch her. York was resolved to take the disregard in stride. “You can’t get angry about it because it just is. There is an isness and isness is real…So, what are you gonna do about it?” York went with the flow, having learned that one should never let “isness” affect one. “And if they don’t want to touch me, I don’t touch them. I don’t have to touch you. I’ll get paid,” she exclaims with laughter. In spite of the rocky start, the Afghani musicians changed their tune when York began singing “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” to the traditional scales that the Afghans were playing. “Something was born from that endeavor…and from that point on, their whole attitude towards me changed.” 

Even the most unpleasant experiences took a turn for the better, like York’s visit to Kurdistan. When she arrived with the pianist, they had a 50-mile drive up the mountains in what ended up being a snowstorm. The temperature was below zero. She remembers that it was so cold that spit would ice before it hit the ground. After the concert, she found out that someone stole her coat. “Because they wanted a Western coat.” In a scurry for another coat, an audience member approached her and gave her the coat off his back. “I still have that coat,” she says, adding, “It was just a wonderful experience. And I mean, I have 1001 other little experiences like that.”

When her mother got ill, she started traveling every weekend from Holland to Monroe and then back again. She ended up having to take a sabbatical, then later leaving the Conservatory. She was only a few months into her return home when she got a call from a producer out of Holland. He was directing a musical alongside the Royal Dutch Air Force and wanted York to join. “This is a 52-piece orchestra. I knew how special this was because I had already performed with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra,” stresses York. So she told her mom, “I’m on the road again.” After six months of rehearsals, comradery, and thrilling performances, York was back with her mother, but only for a few months. She got another call, this time from a promoter offering her gigs in Southeast Asia. During that time she hit Indonesia, Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. “Oh, my world changes with the telephone,” she says. 

Moving back to Monroe was like coming home. “I was born and raised in this whole area,” she says, recalling that the first concert she ever went to was in the Monroe Civic Center. Her current music connections in the area began at the house of Dr. Alyce Adams, who she considers her sister. At a party, she performed with her brother, and immediately a reporter from KNOE asked to interview her. The same night, she was introduced to Rob Lloyd, on-air radio personality/producer at The Radio People. Through Lloyd, York ended up meeting Adrienne LaFrance-Wells, Downtown Main Street Director at the City of West Monroe, Dan Sumner, and seasoned local musician Josh Madden. These rapid connections allowed her to get steady gigs in the area, which have kept increasing with each breathtaking performance. “What I have here in Monroe are angels,” she asserts. 

Though my interview with York lasted three hours, she describes herself as “not a talker” and “very shy.” I found this an intriguing revelation because her stage presence suggests otherwise. “I conserve this energy,” she says. “And, when I’m doing the things that I love to do is when it comes out. Your body is a container,” she says, referring to emotions and thoughts that only come out during a performance. She describes her vocal technique as evocatively talking through someone else’s lyrics. “So, I’m actually singing about life, about experiences, about love, and about the wonderment of it all.”

Though a revered International Jazz Stylist who has performed for the Clintons, the Queen of Holland, and the King of Denmark, she also boasts a MS in Psychology and a Masters Certification in Music Therapy. In the end, York still considers herself the country girl from Strong, Arkansas. She’s a star, but not the kind that gets up in the morning to put on makeup or spend hours styling her hair and day’s outfit. “I don’t need to be dressed up to do this,” she says, with a confidence that speaks to her character. There are two constants that she makes sure to always encase her days with, and that’s love and music. “You can’t get around those,” she says. 

Though she has already lived a few lifetimes in one go, her zest for new experiences hasn’t subsided. And for a girl from Strong, Arkansas whose population nears 600 people, Coco York has made quite a mark on the world so far. “I just feel like there’s a universe. I want to be all of it. I want to be all up in it… It’s a hell of a lot of extraordinary.”