Born in Canterbury (Kent) on November 29, 1934, Anthony George “Tony” Coe died on March 16, 2023 in the same English city. He was 88 years old. Saxophonist and clarinetist, he studied composition with Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) and Vinko Globokar.
Polymorphic career, of a singular freedom, indifferent to conventions, we can not be surprised by anything: yes, he is the best known of the anonymous tenor voices, succeeding Plas Johnson in the interpretation of the legendary theme of The pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963); yes, he dedicates Zeitgeist (1977), composition with complex refinement, to Alban Berg; yes, he expresses himself, always on the tenor, in the purest idiom of Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969) and especially of Paul Gonsalves (1920-1974); yes, he loves the madness of unbridled improvisation; yes, he renounces a commitment proposed by Count Basie (1904-1984), tired of the administrative burden of the procedures; yes, he is one of the exemplary desks of the amazing orchestra founded by Kenny Clarke (1914-1985) and Francy Boland (1929-2005), from 1967 to 1973, while frolicking with free guitarist Derek Bailey (1930- 2005); yes, he joined Matrix, the ensemble that clarinetist Alan Hacker (1938-2012) devotes to ancient as well as contemporary music; yes, he performed under the direction of Pierre Boulez (1925-2016), and plays an album by Paul McCartney (on I’ll Give You a Ring, in 1982), etc.
Do we owe this general assent to the world (which presupposes a sacred talent and a very variable geometry ego) to his gypsy ancestry, which earned him the « chaffre » of “Canterbury Gypsy”? It’s too easy and very tempting…
Fer de lance du label Nato
It all started again in 1981 – he was 47 years old, had a multi-track career and a solid reputation, the scope of which was limited to the most demanding musicians. Everything starts again at the invitation of a young man, Jean Rochard, who has no oil, nor cold eyes, but full of ideas. Rochard calls Tony Coe to take part in the first festival he puts on in Chantenay-Villedieu, 862 corps, his native village, in Sarthe.
Made up of odds and ends, the Chantenay-Villedieu festival welcomes the greatest musicians (Martial Solal and Irène Schweizer are from the first edition). Tony Coe was there until 1988. With Violeta Ferrer, Lol Coxhill, Sylvain Kassap, François Tusques (pioneer of freestyle in France), Raymond Boni, Jacques Thollot (1946-2014) and soon Tony Hymas, a faithful traveling companion, he became a spearhead of the Nato label, founded and still managed by the intrepid Rochard (The Voices of Itxassouen 1990, les albums de The Lonely Bears, Buenaventura Durruti, in 1996…), as he had been with the legendary HatHut label (Nutty, in 1990).
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