Photos: Rudy Lu
The almost 2 hour ride to the Falcon was filled with anticipation. I had first seen Kojo Roney perform as an 11 year old drummer at the Madison theater in Albany in his dad Antoine’s band, 8 years ago. He is now 19 years old, has been involved not only in live performances as a musician/band member but has extended his talents into composing for the cinema and leading his own bands. In 2022, he released a streaming-only album Psychedelic ( Apple, Spotify) with a guitar lead power trio, Kojo Roey Experience. Previous recordings were under his father Antoine’s leadership featuring his drumming. As he was billed as lead performer and his father a member of the band, I didn’t quite know what to expect.
Well the expected was actually what was heard and that’s not a bad thing. The band burst onto the bandstand high energy, high volume with an onslaught of notes, and rhythms. All driven by Kojo Roney’s array of tom toms, laid across his kit with occasional fills/texture played on the overhead cymbals, the pulse of Jeremiah Edwards on upright bass, Antoine’s fast runs on soprano sax and Emmanuel Ruffner having his say on his keyboards. Kojo was and is very much a student and practitioner of the Tony Williams style of drumming where the 4 limbs play as if they are independent yet come together. This pioneering style is considered both rock and jazz, the pulse of what is now known as fusion. Kojo advised us this concert was meant to have rock and jazz combined together and was in the spirit of Avant Gardist Sun Ra who would have been110 this year. They then launched into the only cover they performed, the Bud Powell 1950 classic “Tempus Fugit”, a technical tour de force that features keyboards as well as the drums. This tune has been covered by many including Chick Corea, but not probably not as high a volume! The sound engineer was constantly signaled to turn the volume up. The volume was certainly the rock end of the equation.
Most of the music leaned toward musical complexity, with a token node to groove and the blues. Antoine’s Sonny Rollins-like rough growl on tenor was featured on “Parkers Blues”.
Speaking of who’s gig this was, Kojo and Antoine discussed this beforehand and Antoine insisted his son have the lead on this gig, but Kojo made it clear that his father was the musical director for the band.
Although Kojo has toured Europe and much of the US in his young but already lengthy career, he has not played much in the 518. He indicated he would like to play in the 518 again in the future. Hopefully, a lot of the drummers in the area will have the time off to see him.
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