Tony Cox (born 24 January 1954) is a Zimbabwean born guitarist and composer presently based in London. A master of the Fingerpicking style of guitar playing, he has won the SAMA (South African Music Awards) for best instrumental album twice. His music incorporates many different styles including classical, blues, rock and jazz, while keeping an African flavour.
This multiple award-winning acoustic guitarist has become a veritable icon of the instrument in his own country and now seems to be working his particular six-string magic further afield. As of late, he has undertaken regular forays into Europe and Canada and has seen a loyal fan-base begin to develop in the UK, Germany and Canada.
He began to compose his own music early and immediately charged it with the African imagery that is very much a part of this unique guitar player’s world perspective. Using all the finger-style techniques he had absorbed over the years from such greats as Leo Kottke and Bert Jansch, Cox honed and developed a style all his own. With the rigorous precision of classical technique juxtaposing the loose, laid-backed delivery of a master at work, Cox’s music tumbles out at you, hitting your tapping feet with its solid groove and taking your heart and mind on harmonic journeys they have not been on before. Tony Cox on-stage is as warm and engaging with his audience as he is off-stage. Telling stories and anecdotes, he draws a person in and you find yourself listening really closely to a tune you may never have heard before and then being punched in the solar-plexus at the power and delivery of that tune.
In late September 2007, Cox performed at the ‘Open Strings International Guitar Festival’ in Osnabrueck, Germany up alongside the finest guitar players in the world. Shortly after, he completed a 16-theatre tour of Canada and the USA and has been booked for a string of summer festivals in those countries for 2008.
This is Tony's first visit to the The Acoustic Kitchen........and not the last!