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Tony Cox (South African musician)

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Tony Cox
Cox performing at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, South Africa, in June 2005. He is pictured playing a long-scale-length acoustic baritone guitar custom-made for him by Ian Corr.
Cox performing at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, South Africa, in June 2005. He is pictured playing a long-scale-length acoustic baritone guitar custom-made for him by Ian Corr.
Background information
Born (1954-01-24) 24 January 1954 (age 70)
Redcliff, Rhodesia
GenresSouth African fingerstyle, Afrobeat, world music
InstrumentGuitar
Years activeEarly 1970s–present
Websitewww.tonycox.co.za

Anthony Cox (born 24 January 1954) is a Zimbabwean-born guitarist and composer who for most of his life was based in Cape Town, South Africa. An exponent of the fingerpicking style, he has three times won the SAMA (South African Music Awards) for best instrumental album. His music incorporates styles including classical, blues, rock and jazz, while retaining an African flavour.

Life

Cox was born in the mining town of Redcliff in what was then Rhodesia. When he was just nine years old, he began learning and playing the Hawaiian guitar; this occurred after one Archie Pereira arrived from Lisbon and, for reasons unknown, decided to settle in Kwe-Kwe, a town 20 miles from Redcliff.

In his teens and after Pereira returned to Lisbon, Cox switched to a conventional guitar style and later, to enhance his knowledge of technique, studied the classical guitar. In 1969 the family left Rhodesia to settle in Cape Town, South Africa, where the young guitarist began to absorb and assimilate the music of his upbringing and surroundings. His influences included Leo Kottke and Bert Jansch and, closer to home, Sipho Mchunu and Noise Khanyile.

His album Matabele Ants won in the 'best instrumental album' category at the 2003 SAMA awards. He went on to win the same award another two times, for China in 2003 and Blue Anthem in 2008. His 2014 album Padkos, Cox's homage to great South African composers, was nominated for the 2015 SAMA awards.

In 2020 the Cox family uprooted from South Africa and moved to the UK.

Discography

  • 101 Ways to use an acoustic guitar (1983, with Steve Newman)
  • Out of Line (1984) – cassette
  • Planetarium Live (c. 1989, with Steve Newman) – cassette
  • In to nation (1991) – LP
  • Alive at Le Plaza (1993, with Steve Newman) – cassette
  • Cool friction (1996)
  • Looking for Zim (1998)
  • Matabele ants (1999) – SA Award–winner, 2001
  • The Aquarian Quartet – Live (2002)
  • China (2003) – SA Award–winner
  • About time (2002, with Steve Newman)
  • Tony Cox – In Concert at the Grahamstown National Festival of the Arts (2005)
  • Blue Anthem (2007, with Benguela) – SA Award–winner, 2008
  • Audient (2008)
  • Tony Cox & Steve Newman – Return of the Road Warriors (2010, with Steve Newman)
  • The Summer Comes My loves (2011)
  • Padkos (2014)
  • Enormous Flowers (2017)
  • The World Went Quiet (2021)
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