London Jazz Festival: Tony Kofi "portrait Of Cannonball" at 606 Club

From Nottingham, saxophonist Tony Kofi attended Berklee College of Music on full scholarship. On returning to the UK he went on to become a member of The Jazz Warriors and Gary Cosby’s Nu Troop as well as playing with high profile musicians including Billy Higgins, Courtney Pine & the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band to name but a few. A remarkable musician, Tony has received a plethora of awards during his stellar career, including Best Ensemble at the 2005 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, 2005 Radio 3 Jazz line up album of the year, Best Instrumentalist at the 2008 BBC Jazz Awards and a MOBO Award nomination in 2008. For this London Jazz Festival performance Tony presents ‘Portrait of Cannonball’, paying homage to the late Cannonball Adderley, who was born Julian Edwin Adderley in Tampa, Florida, on September 15th 1928. Cannonball studied saxophone at the US Navy School of Music before moving to New York City in the 1950s, going on to become one of the best-loved figures in post-war jazz. Known as ‘the new Bird’, he made historic recordings with Miles Davis and John Coltrane as well as having many crossover hits as a pioneer of the soul-jazz genre. Spanning bebop to jazz-funk, he was an unfailingly inventive and communicative virtuoso. To celebrate what would have been Cannonball's 90th year (he died in 1975), Tony will be joined by a terrific band featuring the fabulous Byron Wallen (Digable Planets, Hugh Masekela, Us3, Wynton Marsalis, George Benson) on trumpet/cornet and winner of the 2016 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, Deelee Dube, on vocals to perform music written by and associated with this giant of jazz. ...

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From Nottingham, saxophonist Tony Kofi attended Berklee College of Music on full scholarship. On returning to the UK he went on to become a member of The Jazz Warriors and Gary Cosby’s Nu Troop as well as playing with high profile musicians including Billy Higgins, Courtney Pine & the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band to name but a few. A remarkable musician, Tony has received a plethora of awards during his stellar career, including Best Ensemble at the 2005 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, 2005 Radio 3 Jazz line up album of the year, Best Instrumentalist at the 2008 BBC Jazz Awards and a MOBO Award nomination in 2008. For this London Jazz Festival performance Tony presents ‘Portrait of Cannonball’, paying homage to the late Cannonball Adderley, who was born Julian Edwin Adderley in Tampa, Florida, on September 15th 1928. Cannonball studied saxophone at the US Navy School of Music before moving to New York City in the 1950s, going on to become one of the best-loved figures in post-war jazz. Known as ‘the new Bird’, he made historic recordings with Miles Davis and John Coltrane as well as having many crossover hits as a pioneer of the soul-jazz genre. Spanning bebop to jazz-funk, he was an unfailingly inventive and communicative virtuoso. To celebrate what would have been Cannonball's 90th year (he died in 1975), Tony will be joined by a terrific band featuring the fabulous Byron Wallen (Digable Planets, Hugh Masekela, Us3, Wynton Marsalis, George Benson) on trumpet/cornet and winner of the 2016 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, Deelee Dube, on vocals to perform music written by and associated with this giant of jazz.

“There is so much respect in jazz circles for Tony Kofi” Jazzwise; “Wallen proved himself as engaging a showman as he is brilliant trumpeter, composer and bandleader” Jazz Views

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