The Best In British Jazz
Tony Coe
Tony Coe began his performing career playing with Humphrey Lyttelton's band and in 1965 Count Basie offered him a place in the Basie Band sax section. He has since played with the John Dankworth Orchestra , Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Band, Derek Bailey's Company, Stan Tracey, Mike Gibbs, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gilespie, Bob Brookmeyer and performed under Pierre Boulez as well as leading a series of groups of his own including Coe Oxley & Co. He has also worked with Matrix, a small ensemble formed by clarinettist Alan Hacker, with a wide-ranging repertoire of early, classical and contemporary music. Coe's extensive experience in recording is heard on such films as Superman II and Victor Victoria, and he is the featured tenor sax solist in Hanry Mancini's music for the Pink Panther films.
An immensely gifted composer he has written many pieces for his own groups, Matrix, the Danish Radio Big Band, Metropole Orchestra and Skymasters in Holland. In 1975 a grant from the Arts Council enabled him to write Zeitgeist, an extended, large scale orchestral work. His scores for film include Mer de Chine, Camomile and the silent film Peau de Pêche.
