Phillip Kakaza
It’s hard to classify Tony Cox’s music. With his classical guitar background he encompasses a well- textured resonance of blues, rock, jazz and African styles.
During his recent Deep Sea Guitar solo show at Jargonelle’s he sailed into high and beautiful notes, revisiting some of his old works and playing some of the tunes from his new album, Looking for Zim.
The CD features some of the finest instumentalists and vocalists, including Barry van Zyl (drums), Paul Hanmer (piano), Chris Tokolan (sax/flute), Bruce Cassidy (trumpet), John Davies (trombone), Kenny Mabata (harmonica), Wendy Oldfield and Wambali Mkandawire (vocals).
Looking for Zim is also the title of one of the numbers on the CD.
Cox composed the song in June last year while he was on holiday in his hometown of Redcliff in Zimbabwe. Born in the area, he left there at 16 to pursue his career in music and returned to Zimbabwe only last year.
”When I visited Zim I was in search of places that were in my imagination as a child. Everything seemed to have changed so rapidly and looked different. Not having been there in a long time, I was on a pilgrimage, searching for my childhood visions,” says Cox.
Another moving song on the album is Between the Lines, which looks at how various media force people to think in certain ways, without their being aware of it. In this number Cox shows his amazing talent for making the guitar sing with passion and intellectual precision.
He demostrates an impressive mastery of ”finger style”, where his right hand works to weave a tapestry of numerous textures across a single chord. The maestro on the acoustic guitar excites his audience’s curiosity and lures them to a world of imagination.
Cox’s inspiration and artistic compositions are influenced by daily experiences and interactions with ordinary people.
”I read newspapers from cover to cover every day and it is amazing how the media creates images in people’s minds. The song Between the Lines is about a man who feels he has been misled by newspapers so stops reading them and just carries on with his life.”
Fascinated by exploring different guitar styles, Cox says he’s always searching for a unique sound, whether African or universal.
”For me music is about exploring, finding new sounds and making a connection with nature. Music is a doorway that connects us to nature. I’m a child of nature and have always been fascinated by any sound, be it the sea waves or the birds,” says Cox.
He is well-known but many people are not familiar with his music. ”In some gigs I find my audience quite reserved. I suppose they’re fascinated by the variety of sounds the guitar produces and they’re discovering my music,” says Cox
With the numerous local radio stations that have been launched over the years Cox says the interest has been on commercial music. ”I don’t play commercial music. It restricts my creativity and as long as my music is rarely on the air waves I take an initiative to popularise my music by doing gigs in small venues. People come and see what I’m about after reading a good review.”
Tony Cox’s Looking for Zim CD will be released in July. Cox will do the Deep Sea Guitar show at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival. Cox and stand- up comedian Chris Tokolan will perform in the comedy show Don’t Tune Us We’ll Tune You at St Aiden’s Chapel in Grahamstown