Monk Liberation Front at Bristol Beacon

Tony Kofi (Tenor Sax), Jonathan Gee (Piano & Keys), Ben Hazelton (Basses), Rod Youngs (Drums)

First heard at the 2003 London Jazz Festival, the Monk Liberation Front (MLF) played a 6-hour set featuring all 70 of Jazz pianist Thelonious Monk's compositions. The band the included 11 musicians performing in tandem throughout the day, with lead originators Jonathan Gee and Tony Kofi on stage for the majority. They performed again in July 2004 at the Rome, Terni and Vignola Jazz Festivals and a second LJF appearance in 2007 with a septet. Since then occasional quartet versions have performed selected Monk tunes, but until now, they have not been to Bristol ...

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Tony Kofi (Tenor Sax), Jonathan Gee (Piano & Keys), Ben Hazelton (Basses), Rod Youngs (Drums)

First heard at the 2003 London Jazz Festival, the Monk Liberation Front (MLF) played a 6-hour set featuring all 70 of Jazz pianist Thelonious Monk's compositions. The band the included 11 musicians performing in tandem throughout the day, with lead originators Jonathan Gee and Tony Kofi on stage for the majority. They performed again in July 2004 at the Rome, Terni and Vignola Jazz Festivals and a second LJF appearance in 2007 with a septet. Since then occasional quartet versions have performed selected Monk tunes, but until now, they have not been to Bristol

Tony Kofi’s Quartet was voted best ensemble at the 2005 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, and this quartet features three original MLF band members with Rod Youngs on drums

"Sparks always fly when Kofi and Gee get stuck into the angular sequences, but each brings different shades of meaning to Monk's raw material.
The MLF is about jazz as a living art form”…process rather than style…and that's liberating…
John L. Walters, The Guardian

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