Tunde's appointment is for two years starting in January 1999 and will involve leading a number of collaborative ventures with different community groups, orchestras and promoters in Eastern England. On The Edge is the first of these ventures.

Tunde Jegede began playing cello and kora at the age of seven. His love of Western Classical Music, derived from his church organist grandfather, combined with his immersion in the Griot tradition of Mali via his father's poetry and percussion group and early training with virtuoso musician Bouly Cissoko. At the age of ten Tunde was taken to Africa to continue his studies by his present master Amadu Bansang Jobareth. Amadu's family is one of only four in a guild of hereditary poet-musicians and Tunde is one of only a few from outside these families to be allowed to study this tradition.

Tunde's later introduction to jazz via the recordings of Miles Davis and John Coltrane in particular has led to an in-depth and innovative exploration of the links between the musics of the African Diaspora. He performed with Orphy Robinson's innovative string project "Annavas", with Brazillian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and on Trilok Gurtu's album "Living Magic".

In 1991 he began a long-term collaboration with Paul Gladstone Reid building a repertoire reflective of their cultural heritage for various chamber music combinations. They formed the Axiom Foundation with a guild of composers known as 'The Hermetic Renaissance', "a revival of sciences, ideas and models of learning related to art and music influenced by the ancient wisdom of the Hametic, Semetic and Cushite cultures of what was originally known as Alkebu-Lan by Ethiopans and Moors and later Africa by the Greeks and Romans.

In 1995 his string quartet 'Light in the Circle of Truth' was premiered in a three date tour by members of the London Sinfonietta which also premiered his orchestral version of 'Cycle of Reckoning' for the BBC2 television documentary about his work called 'Africa I Remember'.

1995 also featured the release of his album 'Lamentation' which was followed in 1996 by his second album 'Malian Royal Court Music'.