Genie Cosmas: 20 years on Stream

Twenty years is a long gap between albums in anyone’s career. But as Genie Cosmas tells, for her it was all tied up with her feelings for her own label, Stream Records

As comebacks go, it’s never going to rival Sinatra’s or Elvis. But for disabled musician and performer Genie Cosmas, the revival of her Stream Records label after 20 years away, and the release of her new album Cry From The City are big events. And the album’s reception will do her just fine.

“I’ve got so much interest,” she tells me.

“So many people like me and my CD started selling all over the place.”

Looking back to the time when she first set up the label, she realises that the point at which she became disabled was a pivotal one.

“I started learning the piano at five, but after that I didn’t really do much in music until I became disabled at 24 when I took up the saxophone as a way of expressing myself.

“At that time I’d been listening to a lot of funk music, reggae, jazz – I remember seeing Dizzy Gillespie at Ronnie Scott’s when I was 16. Later I was also interested in the Two-Tone movement in Coventry where I went to university.”

As a sax player, Genie gigged around in a variety of bands for a while.

Then she reverted to piano and formed her own band.

It was around this time that she began to be interested in the Disability Arts scene.

“I remember seeing an ad asking for performers in the old Disability Arts In London (DAIL) magazine. After that I mainly worked on the Disability Arts scene although my band was an integrated one with me as the disabled member.”

At that time there were a number of really good disabled musicians working both in disability arts and on the mainstream music scene. But like many of them, Genie discovered that it was difficult to get market-and-image conscious label bosses and A&R people to sign disabled acts.

That’s what made Stream Records happen.

“Stream Records was originally set up for me to record my first album. I didn’t have a record company, so I did it all myself.”

It was the classic Indie label model.

“Later I used the label to record a couple of other disabled artists, but it was mainly for me to record my album.”

So had she set out with the idea of being a kind of magnet for disabled artists? Giving them a place to go when no-one else would sign them?

“I didn’t ever sign anybody. It wasn’t that sort of operation. I agreed to find funding and provide facilities for other artists to perform.”

One of the albums she produced during the mid-90s was one which had iconic status by an artist who became a bit of a legend among disability activists.

“One artist I worked with was Ian Stanton. He made a fantastic CD called Rolling Thunder, all songs which carried the disability rights message.”

Stream also produced Nice Work, an album showcasing the talent of blind classical soprano Clare Graydon-James.

But eventually the funding ran out and production went into cessation. Genie explains.

“The reason the funding eventually dried up is that the funders wanted me to become a charity. I refused. I didn’t see why if you were disabled you had to become a charity.”

Unsurprisingly perhaps at this point, Genie lost heart.

“In the end it got so frustrating that I didn’t do much work and started teaching. I wasn’t doing much with Stream Records and I let it go by the wayside.”

Now, she’s pulled together a composite album of 16 instrumental tracks – including one featuring Robert Wyatt on piano – under the title Cry From The City.

The title she says, seems rather appropriate after recent events which have taken place in London and elsewhere. But, as importantly for Genie, it means her label is back in business.

“After 20 years I thought I might as well resurrect it, so I did.”

• Genie Cosmas Cries From The city is available from streamrecords.co.uk