Upcoming Gigs

Tony Kofi has been a leading light of the UK’s jazz scene for more than 10 years. Having studied at Berklee under such artists as Donald Byrd and Ernie Watts, he first came to prominence as a member of the UK’s leading group of the 90s – the legendary Jazz Warriors, where he was a featured soloist. From these auspicious beginnings, Tony went on to work with everyone from David Murray, Eddie Henderson, Courtney Pine & Branford Marsalis to Lonnie Smith & Salt’n’Pepa. While still a busy sideman (guesting for example this year on tours with Roy Ayers and Sam Rivers), Tony’s solo recording career took off in 2004 with his release for Proper Records’ contemporary imprint SPECIFIC JAZZ, a critically acclaimed collection of Thelonious Monk’s music.

It’s the sound of his band that gets you on this record, right from the very first note, a piercingly strong sax tone, perfectly in unison with the piano melody, so much so you think it is one instrument playing both notes. And the whole lot held down by a rhythm section that swings like it is going out of fashion. This is the sound of Tony Kofi’s quartet, part of a larger organisation dubbed The Monk Liberation Front.

A long-time admirer of Monk’s compositional & improvisational style, Tony set himself the task of studying the man’s music in fine detail. This process lasted 5 years, resulting in the creation of an umbrella organisation, which includes his current quartet. The band’s ethos is to bring the genius of Monk’s music to new audiences and along the way to celebrate his unique creativity. Using the techniques of improvisation that Monk helped to pioneer – in short order, the prominent use of the whole tone scale, chromatic chord substitutions and distinctive rhythmic devices – the Monk Liberation Front brings Monk’s work to life for 21st Century listeners.

In a now-legendary 6-hour session at the London Jazz Festival 2003, the band, which features Jonathan Gee on piano, Winston Clifford on drums and Ben Hazelton on bass, as well as other guests (including Orphy Robinson playing vibes and marimba), played the entire written repertoire of Thelonious Monk (70 tunes in all!), to a crowd who lapped up every note. Some two months later the band were ensconced in Specific’s in-house studio at Proper Records’ HQ, The Powerhouse, in South London, recording the marathon set over a period of 2 weeks. Having deliberated long and hard over which tunes to include from this session, the recording and mixing were eventually completed and the first release on Proper’s contemporary jazz imprint was ready to go.

Press reaction to the album was overwhelming; with THE GUARDIAN awarding 4 stars and saying “Jazz as a living art form…Few Monk tributes are played with more passionate affection and sympathy. Monk might even have loved it” and JAZZWISE saying “This really is a great record, and it’s British”. Tony toured the record around the UK, including a performance at the Brecon Jazz Festival, where the 200 capacity venue was filled, leaving another 350 people on the grass outside attentively listening to the quartet’s music as it spilled out of the venue’s windows and doors.

On 2nd July 2005 Tony received the Radio 3 Jazz Line-Up Album of the Year Award at the BBC Jazz Awards for ‘All Is Know’. While the Monk Liberation Front is now attracting more and more gigs in the UK and worldwide, Tony is still turning his mind to the future. An organ trio album is planned to take in the funkier side of his musical personality but these projects are only the beginning for an artist who is taking his musical explorations far beyond that of most of his contemporaries. Watch this space…