BBC double-award winner Tony Kofi joins Chris Biscoe in an exploration of the musical legacies of the extraordinary bassist, composer and bandleader Charles Mingus, and of reeds virtuoso Eric Dolphy. The band features music written by Eric Dolphy and tunes from Oliver Nelson, Fats Waller, Monk and Mingus which he recorded. Jazz has always been a music about people and places, the connections, the routes (and roots) between, the meetings and the getting away.

When Chris recorded some of the repertoire from his band Mingus Moves he realised how many of Charles Mingus’ compositions are dedications to musicians, friends and family, lovers and political enemies, not forgetting one toilet-trained cat. The CD was Profiles of Mingus, and this became the working name for the band. The Profiles Quintet draws on this tradition, expanding it to include compositions by other jazz greats. Tunes for the quintet include Thelonious Monk’s Jackie-ing (written for his niece Jackie Smith) and Monk’s Dream, Eric Dolphy’s Miss Ann and his portrait of Monk, Hat and Beard. It’s impossible to leave out Charles Mingus, who is represented by Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (for Lester Young), Pussy Cat Dues (that bemused looking cat perched on a Manhattan apartment toilet seat), and Fables of Faubus, the great satirical composition ‘dedicated’ to Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas.

Iine Up: Chris Biscoe – sax, Tony Kofi, – sax, Alcyona Mick – piano, Larry Bartley – bass & Winston Clifford – drums