Tony Kofi
Saxophone
Tony Kofi is a British Jazz multi-instrumentalist born of Ghanaian parents, a player of the Alto, Baritone, Soprano, Tenor saxophones and flute.
Having cut his teeth in the “Jazz Warriors” of the early 90’s, award-winning saxophonist Tony Kofi has gone on to establish himself as a musician, teacher and composer.
As well as performing and recording with Gary Crosby’s “Nu-Troop” and “Jazz Jamaica”, Tony’s playing has also been a feature of many bands and artists he has worked with, including “US-3” The World Saxophone Quartet, Courtney Pine, Donald Byrd, Eddie Henderson, The David Murray Big Band, Sam Rivers Rivbe Big band, Andrew Hill Big Band, Abdullah Ibrahim, Macy Gray, Julian Joseph Big band, Harry Connick JR, Byron Wallen’s Indigo, Jamaaladeen Tacuma’s Coltrane Configurations and Ornette Coleman.
His fluent and fiery hard-bop style makes him constantly in demand. He currently leads his own Tony Kofi Quartet, Tony Kofi Sphinx Trio, Future Passed Trio and is also the co-founder with Jonathan Gee of the Monk Liberation Front, a group that is dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk.
Tony’s latest project sees him performing with Alex Webb’s Café Society Swing, Arnie Somogyi’s Jump Monk, Larry Bartley’s JustUS Quartet, Adrian Reid Quartet, a double leaders project with Alan Barnes called Aggregation, Orphy Robinson’s Bobby Hutcherson songbook project, Alina Bzhezhinska Quartet, Jo Harrop’s Fever, Portrait of Cannonball (Music dedicated to Cannonball Adderley), Tony Kofi and the Organisation, a recent project which he co-leads on the Baritone Saxophone.
Winner BBC Jazz Awards 2005 -Album of the Year
Winner BBC Jazz Awards 2008 – Best Instrumentalist
Winner, Best Ensemble, Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2005,
Nominee, Mobo Awards 2008
Winner of the Jack Petchey foundation award 2015
Winner of the Black Achievers award –Cultural, music and arts award 2016
Greatest Musical Inspiration
Charlie Parker
Best Musical Advice
Be musically honest with yourself, only then will people hear the real you.