Kojo Melché Roney feat. Antoine Roney

APPEARING: MANHATTAN MARATHON @ Zinc Bar

Friday, January 10, 2025

At a young age, Kojo Melché Roney took interest in the Drums and their distinctive history in American culture, instantly deciding at a very young age, to take on music performance as a profession, maturing through the guidance of both his father, Antoine Roney and his mother, Nia Love and in vain, his grandparents Marguerite Robinson-Chapman and Roosevelt Sherman, who were important unsung heroes in Jazz History and the overall entertainment business through TV/film as well. By the age of 8yrs old he was Featured on his first tour in Europe, which was the start of his professional music encounters as a sideman and the rise of his popularity worldwide. He has traveled and performed in Countries like France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Israel, Serbia, Germany, Austria, Poland, Mexico, Ivory Coast and many more. At age 11 he was handpicked by Alicia Keys to be featured alongside herself in her first Levi’s Commercial and Kojo began to dive into the world of film, staring in a documentary the very next year entitled “Kojo: a Short Documentary” (directed by Michael Fequiere & released in 2016) focusing on his young life as a Musician and his development as an established professional musician. His documentary has a track record of 13 award nominations and currently holds the winning trophy to the tiff. (Toronto International Film Festival) Best Documentary award and the Best Short Documentary and Best Short Documentary Director at the Tulsa American Film Festival including five others. Continuing his journey in film alongside his music, Kojo continued to document and publish his journeys around the world in the form of short self published films like “Navajo Country” and “I'm a Jazz Musician” attracting huge amounts of attention through Youtube and social media during his early development. Later in 2018, Kojo was featured in Shawn Mendes’ music video “Youth” as well as was casted to play starring role as “Job” in current Film Festival touring Film “Paris is in Harlem” furthermore growing his popularity within the film industry and the young world. In the more recent year of 2022, Kojo starred on Quincy Jones’ music film platform QWEST.TV on a series entitled: “One Night Stand”, an episodic series that showcases the beauty of spontaneous creative music. The series was listed as No. 2 on QWEST.TV’s most watched list, during the height of the COVID19 pandemic, giving listeners a peak back into the world of live music due to its absence during the time of quarantine. Kojo Melché Roney has performed with and is endorsed by the Masters of multi-genre music like (his uncle, Grammy award winning artist and student of Miles Davis) Wallace Roney - Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams, Ron Carter, Chick Corea, Hamiet Bluiett, Gary Bartz, his father Antoine Roney and many more. He also performed special performances with his mother Choreographer/Dancer and Movement Artist, Nia Love. Highlights of his young life includes his close friendships and mentorship by that of great drummers. People like Milford Graves, Jazz legend drummer Roy Haynes, Louis Hayes, Al Foster, Grady Tate, Lenny White, Jack Dejohnette, Cindy Blackman Santana, Jimmy Cobb, James Mtumé and more. Now he is taking matters into his own hands, releasing his debut Album as a bandleader in 2024 entitled: Psychedelic at age of 19, under AWAL/Sony Music label taking his musical and artistic understanding into his own hands as a leader. The continuum of his cinematic work is represented through his new short film release through Sony entitled: Golden Ghosts: A Short Film showcasing the elegance, intelligence and excitement he visually produces while performing behind the drum kit into the world of Film, as well as holding up the Tradition of Live Performance. Kojo continues to have a heavy influence on his generation by pioneering the live music scene of today, being an advocate of young elegance and intelligence and at the same time maintaining the thrilling excitement of his known artistic Virtuosity behind the drum kit and representation of modern American powerhouse drumming and futuristic musical composing. Kojo has become a favorite amongst the younger musicians admiring his level of talent, his integrity being a young person performing on a high level and he continues to capture the young generation of jazz musicians as everyone his age and younger within the music scene aspires to be like him.