Jazz Articles about Tony Kofi

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Jo Harrop: The Heart Wants

by Richard J Salvucci
April 6, 2022

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 ...

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Tony Kofi: Point Blank

by Chris May
August 20, 2018

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 ...

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Take Five with Tony Kofi

by AAJ Staff
July 31, 2018

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 ...

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Byron Wallen: Meeting Ground

by Bruce Lindsay
October 20, 2008

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 ...

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Tony Kofi Quartet: The Silent Truth

by Chris May
March 29, 2008

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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Tony Kofi: Future Passed

by Chris May
May 8, 2006

Though its nuances may not be readily apparent online, the back and front sleeve art for Future Passed, London saxophonist and ex-Tomorrow's Warrior Tony Kofi's second album as leader, is reminiscent of the time-travelling cover of Curtis Counce's 1958 recalibration of hard bop, Exploring The Future.

There are no astronauts on Kofi's sleeve, true, but the retro TV console, its 1960s design inspired by NASA space helmets, and the deep space panorama surrounding it, suggest a similar restlessness with present ...

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Tony Kofi Quartet: Plays Monk (All Is Know)

by Chris May
September 5, 2004

First making a name for himself on the British jazz scene in '91 as a member of the high profile young Turks the Jazz Warriors, Tony Kofi went on to guest with a wide variety of artists during the first half of the '90s--from the David Murray Big Band, Jazz Jamaica and Eddie Henderson to Queen Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa--before joining the Township Express Orchestra and Tim Richards' Great Spirit, both of which he continues to play with. He is a ...