Jazz Northampton - NCJazz, promoting contemporary Jazz in Northamptonshire
REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS ::
Thursday 7th October - TONY KOFI QUARTET
Back to the Future
Tony Kofi is a jazz artiste of the future, although he's been performing with this same quartet for some 12 years now. His background has been firmly embedded in progressive, cutting edge jazz from his earliest days with such avant garde groups as the Jazz Warriors and Gary Crosby's Nu-Troop.
Yet, while his instinct is to explore the jazz of the future, his inclinations repeatedly return him to the music of Thelonious Monk, himself a unique and revolutionary path-finder of modern jazz, who died nearly 30 years ago.
Kofi's alto or soprano saxophone sounds on some of the Monk compositions, particularly Brilliant Corners, harked straight back to early Monk and the great Ernie Henry who played alto saxophone on Monk's original recording of the song in December 1956. Likewise, Crepuscule for Nellie was a throwback to the famous Monk quartet of the early sixties, with Kofi's phrasing bearing an uncanny resemblance to that of the legendary Charlie Rouse, so long Monk's tenor man and anchor.
Kofi's faithful trio of Jonathan Gee, piano, Ben Hazleton, bass and the highly-respected, Winston Clifford, drums, provided vibrant and eclectic support across a wide range of Kofi's compositions, although arrangements by both Gee and Hazleton showed that Kofi has no monopoly in the art of composition.
But, disciple of Monk though he may be, Tony Kofi possesses an irresistible urge to move forward - with virtually the whole programme comprising his own compositions. It's almost impossible to classify him, so contrasting is his output. At one moment, his sound is so intense and powerful that his instrument seems almost out of control; in the next instant, he delivers a delicate trickle of notes with the most subtle of understatements. In terms of expressing feelings and emotion, his ability to command his instruments is total.
There was no better illustration of this than his renditions of First Breath, and Danti, both highly-charged and emotional tribute compositions to his son, in which the rhythm section offered powerful, yet poignant, support to underpin Kofi's sensitive delivery.
Other outstanding performances included Kofi's composition, Blues on the Hill, with an outstanding drum solo from the admirable Winston Clifford, and a Ben Hazleton composition, Unremoved, in which Clifford again featured prominently with a steady, insistent jungle beat supporting Kofi's power and Hazleton's 'walking' bass playing.
Tony Kofi faces both ways. He looks to the past to stimulate his urge to create for the future. He is a formidable figure on today's jazz scene.
NCJAZZ FOR LIVE JAZZ MUSIC IN NORTHANTS