Anisha Rush Aims For Black Excellence One Saxophone At A Time
Courtesy of Anisha Rush
Educator. Composer. Saxophonist. Proudly Black. Anisha Rush is a creative force earnestly forging her path in education and music. Rush was born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO—an area "low-key" known for jazz music. At age ten, she began playing the sax, becoming one with the instrument. However, becoming a musician wasn't always the dream. In fact, Anisha hoped that her hoop dreams would take her away from "the Centennial State." But after her dreams of becoming a WNBA star faded, Rush found a sanctuary-like residence in music and education.
She became engulfed in Black American arts, going on to study psychology and music. Anisha snagged a BM in Jazz Studies from the Thompson Jazz Studies Program and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BA in Psychology—before it was cool to root for the Buffaloes (what's up Deion!). As a musician, Anisha has gotten down with some of jazz music's best. The artist has shared the stage with Makaya McCraven, Ron Miles, Matt Wilson, Dawn Clement, Shane Endsley, and more. 2023 found the accomplished artist being selected for the Next Jazz Legacy. The revered apprenticeship program is led by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice with support from the Mellon Foundation.
Just before Rush hit the stage at the Winter Jazzfest at (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC, In Search Of spoke to the multihyphenate about her journey.
In Search Of Magazine: Was it always your dream to be a musician or more specifically a jazz musician?
Anisha: Yeah, probably. I think before that was to be an NBA basketball star. Then I stopped growing. But yeah, honestly, I grew up in a really musical home. And my sisters and I always, we wrote our own songs. We had a little singing group together, and I actually started playing on a classical guitar before playing jazz. So I've always had music in my life and just kind of always knew it would always be in my life. So yeah, I guess I didn't really start playing jazz until middle school. But yeah, I think in a sense I always saw myself performing and playing in any genre, honestly.
ISO: You're also born and raised in Colorado. Now, when I think of jazz, I normally think of Harlem, I think of New York City, think of Chicago. So in what way did your environment impact your love for this art form? And is Colorado low-key known for jazz?
Anisha: Low-key, I guess. I think I grew up, my dad always had this smooth jazz channel on. It was either gospel or smooth jazz in our house. So I think that would probably be my influence. Definitely not my environment. I grew up in Colorado Springs, which is pretty military, very white, not that welcoming to this type of music.
ISO: Are you a military brat?
Anisha: I am, yeah. My dad is retired Air Force, and I went to school on the Air Force Academy base! I guess I wouldn't say that that really influenced my attraction to that music, but I will say that Colorado does have a pretty good music jazz scene. In a sense. I would say, because of geographically, it's kind of a bubble. It's not as in touch with what's going on currently. I think a lot of what's being played there now has been played there for the last several decades. So that actually is a big part of my motivation for moving. I just recently moved to Chicago, just wanting to get more into that more bubble scene and more just a broader range of improvised music. Yeah.
ISO: When did you move to Chicago?
Anisha: I moved to Chicago just last year.
ISO: Do you see the change in your musical awareness perking up at different sounds happening around the city?
A: I think when you move somewhere where there's so many amazing players. In Colorado, it's so small, it felt like I kind of reached the ceiling. But moving to Chicago, there's just so many amazing players. So I feel a lot more motivated and more like, oh man, I got to keep shedding and get more of my stuff together. Chicago has a really great free jazz scene and all of that, so that's definitely really exciting to be able to go out on literally any night and hear really amazing music. So that's definitely, I think I feel more inspired. My ears are definitely bigger, I think in a sense, just being able to experience a different... It's really just almost a different approach to the music I think than in Denver. Denver was very, very straight ahead.
Yeah, it was very straight ahead for me. Obviously, I have a background. I have a degree in jazz studies, so I can do that, but I'm really drawn to more. I don't even really think of myself as a jazz musician necessarily. I think of myself as a improvising Black music, improvised musician in a sense, because I wouldn't say right now this time in my life, jazz is the thing that I listen to the most, honestly. It's what I listen to study, to practice, to study the music and to practice, and if I'm learning a transcription or something. But usually I have something like Amber Mark on, or some older like Nita Baker, I've been obsessed with her lately. So I think being in Chicago is great because I find that there's more of that music happening as well than in Denver. Denver is more of funk... There's a big funk scene out there.
Which is kind of interesing having a funk scene, which also borders on jam band, in my opinion. But yeah, it wasn't a place where I felt like I could thrive in the music I wanted to play.
ISO: So jazz included, Hip-Hop included, R&B included, every genre included. What would you say three albums that have played a pivotal role in your development as a Black music improviser?
A: That's a big question. Okay. Okay. Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come, that's probably the one that opened my ears because he wasn't so widely accepted at the time, but his music, I think is the most rooted in Black American music. Just every song was basically the blues, basically, or rhythm changes. I think that's a big influence for me. Let's see. Any genre, probably, I can't remember the album name, but Fred Hammond was always played in my house, and I feel that I'm very influenced by gospel music and those types of changes and sounds. So honestly, I'd put that on the list. And then, let's see. This is a really hard question for any genre. Oh man, I'm going to stick with jazz and say Cannonball, the one with Autumn Leaves is on it.
ISO: So in 2023, around that time that you made the move to Chicago, you were also selected for the Next Jazz legacy. If you remember, how did that process go, and what do you remember feeling when you were selected as one of the awardees?
A: It was big for me, honestly, I cried on the phone to Terri Lyne. That was embarrassing. I've never experienced something like that before where I was just completely overjoyed. I think at that time in my life, I was... So with COVID, I had a difficult time through COVID because I didn't qualify for a lot of the unemployment that was there for musicians. Because I was working at a university, there was a rule where I was making too much W-2 income, even though most of my income was with music at the time. So that meant that I had to get a full-time job, and that was hard. I actually was working on the suicide prevention crisis line through COVID, and I mean, that was hard. And so I think since then I've been trying to get... I felt so far from music in a sense, because I wasn't gigging.
I was working this job to pay my rent, and I just was like, man, if something doesn't happen, I'm afraid it's gone forever. I'm afraid I'm never going to get back to my dreams and to what I want to do. So that was a big motivator to want to move to Chicago. But at the same time, I was feeling really unsure of myself and doubting my playing and doubting my music and doubting everything that I had put my whole life into. So getting the grant was pretty honestly, life changing, because that was the first time when I was like, okay, maybe I can do this. Maybe there is room for me here to just put out into the world the music I want to put out there.
And just hearing from Terri Lyne too, who's such an icon and such a motivation to me was amazing. And then also being able to, through the grant to play with Makaya McCraven was also amazing because I mean, that was another part of why I was wanting to move to Chicago. I knew he was very much in that scene. I was like, okay, if he's there, I want to be there. And so then to be able to play it with him and to make that connection has been really life-changing.
ISO: Has your mentality shifted in a way where you're like, okay, now it's time. We go hard. Ain't nothing, if something get in my way, it better buckle up running right through it.
A: I'm definitely feeling that. Yeah, especially moving into the new year. I feel anticipation. I think some opportunities might be coming my way this year. And just having the funds and the support to put music out there is exciting. So yeah, I know now that, I mean, obviously I still have a lot of doubts in my head. I still fight the imposter syndrome, but now I feel like there's nothing that can stop me but me at this point. So I'm feeling very, very motivated.
ISO: And you're also a band leader, correct? So you have Anisha Rush and the Encounter. How did that group come together and where can folks expect to see y'all next? Because I feel like we need to see Anisha on that stage going crazy.
A:That would be amazing. I'm working on some stuff now so to be announced, determined. I guess that band is right now a bunch of my very close friends who still live in Denver actually. And yeah, I think we came together because Denver scene lacks diversity in many ways. And the scene is also very divided racially, so is Chicago scene in many ways. But that was something that we were all kind of dealing with. And it's not even just about race. It's mostly about when you come from a similar place as somebody, when you come from a similar head space and frame of mind and you play music with them, there's something that's just easy.
And there's things that I didn't have to explain to them that I might've had to explain to other people I play with. And so, yeah, that's really what drew me to them. And yeah, it's nice to be able to play with people who sometimes I'll bring something in that's not fully worked out, but I can trust that they're going to help me work it out. That it's like whatever they bring is how that composition is going to be completed, basically. Yeah.
ISO: And you have mentioned it before that you're an educator. How do you think that profession, if any way at all, helped inform the way you make decisions as a musician?
A: Honestly, teaching is a lesson for me. Teaching usually highlights things that in my playing and in my approach that I need to work on. If I can't sit there and really explain why we do this or why we focus on this or how, then that really points the finger at me to make sure I got my stuff together. So teaching, I'm so grateful for the opportunities I've had to teach. And for me, I feel like an ambassador in a sense, because I really feel that jazz education has taken certain turns that are hard for me to see. When I flip through a magazine and I see all these schools winning awards, and I don't see a single Black face on those awards, it's like, what is happening here? What is going on? So for me, with my music and with teaching, I'm very passionate about not letting people get away with ignoring the fact that this is Black music. I'm very big on, it's for everyone, but we're not going to pretend like, this isn't what it is.
So I just really feel that's something that I'm just always, I don't care who kicks me out of the room. I don't care if I don't come back, I'm going to say it. And that's what it is. So yeah, teaching is definitely, I don't see them necessarily as separate. I see it as all the same. It's all intertwined. It all teaches me, it leads me to open my own ears to be a better musician to all of that.
