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Tony Kofi Quartet: Plays Monk
by Chris May
When it was first released in autumn 2004, Tony Kofi's Plays Monk: All Is Know (as it was then titled) was the saxophonist's first release as leader, a full thirteen years after his emergence with high-profile young Turks the Jazz Warriors. The album went on to win the BBC Jazz Awards Album Of The Year prize. To celebrate its approximate twentieth anniversary, Plays Monk has been released for the first time on vinyl, as a double album, alongside the rereleased ...
read moreAlina Bzhezhinska & HipHarpCollective: Reflections
by Chris May
In an inspired piece of programming, London's Barbican Centre presented the then virtually unknown harpist Alina Bzhezhinska and her quartet as one of the support bands on its November 18, 2017 one-nighter A Concert for Alice and John, a show headlined by Pharoah Sanders. It would be an exaggeration to say Bzhezhinska stole the show (see Pharoah Sanders" above), but she was sensational, offering up fresh readings of Alice Coltrane tunes and a few originals, accompanied by Tony Kofi on ...
read moreJo Harrop: The Heart Wants
by Richard J Salvucci
Is it the behind-the-beat feel Ms Harrop gets, even when she is not? Or perhaps it is in the phrasing? Somehow, she puts a listener in mind of Keely Smith, which is a good thing. There are some very talented jazz singers in the United Kingdom; Jo Harrop is certainly one of them. Here is a recording of loss and longing, and very well done it is. Much of the material Harrop presents in this recording, bluesy, mournful ...
read moreTony Kofi: Point Blank
by Chris May
British saxophonist Tony Kofi has made a specialism of heritage projects. Among the best of them is the Monk Liberation Front, a band which Kofi co-founded with pianist Jonathan Gee in 2003 and which performs Thelonious Monk's music. The work of Julian Cannonball Adderley is the focus of another venture. An early spin-off from the Front was the Tony Kofi Quartet's paradigm tweaking Plays Monk: All Is Know (Specific, 2004). The Adderley project has yet to be recorded. In late ...
read moreTake Five with Tony Kofi
by Tony Kofi
About Tony Kofi A two-time winner of the BBC Jazz Awards among others--Tony Kofi is a British Jazz multi-instrumentalist born of Ghanaian parents who plays alto, baritone, soprano, tenor Saxophone and flute. He cut his teeth in the Jazz Warriors of the early '90s, and went on to establish himself as a musician, teacher and composer of some authority. Tony's playing has been a feature of many bands and artists he has worked/recorded with include The World Saxophone ...
read moreByron Wallen: Meeting Ground
by Bruce Lindsay
This album arose from a series of journeys--geographical, cultural and spiritual, but above all musical--undertaken by trumpeter and leader Byron Wallen, who first visited Morocco in 1996. The result of these journeys is a joyous and original record, fusing contemporary jazz with the music of the Gnawa musicians of Morocco.
The ten pieces of music on Meeting Ground tell the story of Bilal, a 6th century Abyssinian slave who was known for his beautiful singing. Released ...
read moreTony Kofi Quartet: The Silent Truth
by Chris May
Saxophonist Tony Kofi is that increasingly rare thing on the British jazz scene, a player who didn't spend three years learning" the music at an academic institution, but who discovered it, and developed his gift for it, mostly on the bandstand. True, Kofi did once spend a year at Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, but the bulk of his learning curve came earlier, in workshops and on gigs in his hometown, Nottingham, and later, in the real-world ...
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