Tony Kaye (musician)

Tony Kaye (born Anthony John Selvidge on January 11, 1946 in Leicester, England) is a British musician. Note that some mistaken authors spell his original last name "Selridge".

Kaye was the original pianist and organist for the progressive rock group Yes from 1968 to 1971, and rejoined Yes from 1983 to 1995. Between his stints with Yes, he was also a founding member of the 1970s major-label rock bands Flash, Badger and Detective, and joined power-pop group Badfinger in time for their last album in 1981. Kaye currently plays with the band CIRCA:, which also features ex-Yes members Billy Sherwood and Alan White.

Early years

Kaye was only four years-old when he started to receive piano lessons. At twelve he started to play in local concerts and he attended the London School of Music, aspiring to be a concert piano player. Later on, when Tony was fifteen, he discovered he preferred the music of both the Dixieland and modern jazz as well as the modern youthful sounds of the Beatlemania days. He played in one jazz band when he was still a schoolboy and at 15 he joined the Danny Rogers Orchestra. Three years later he abandoned his classical music lessons definitely.

Yes

During the 1960s he played with Johnny Taylor's Star Combo and later recorded a handful of singles with at least three different rock groups (The Federals, Jimmy Winston & His Reflections a.k.a. Winston's Fumbs and Bittersweet) before being invited by Chris Squire to join a new band called Yes. It was 1968, the post-psychedelic era. The original lineup of Yes featured Tony Kaye on keyboards, Peter Banks on guitar, Chris Squire on bass guitar, Jon Anderson on vocals and Bill Bruford on drums. These five musicians put Yes on the English music map and released two albums: the eponymous "Yes" (1969) and "Time and a Word" (1970), and a few singles. The second album featured an orchestra joining the band and stealing much of Kaye's and Banks' parts. In 1971, Yes released "The Yes Album" with guitarist Steve Howe replacing Banks. The opening track, titled "Yours Is No Disgrace", was the first song featuring Kaye as (co)composer. But after a last concert that year at The Crystal Palace, Kaye was asked to leave the group. Some apparent reasons were the animosity Steve Howe showed to him during the first US tour of the band (among other things, they had to share the same bedroom), musical disputes with Howe over solo spots in the new songs, and Kaye's unwillingness to employ synthesizers and Mellotrons. Kaye had even rehearsed with the group some songs that would appear later in the album "Fragile", such as the epic "Heart of the Sunrise", with his keyboard parts being rerecorded by Rick Wakeman.

Other groups

While Yes went on with other keyboardists until 1981, Kaye went in and out of quite a few groups as well. In 1972, he joined ex-fellow Yes member Peter Banks on the (eponymously titled) first album by Flash. Shortly thereafter, he formed his own group: Badger, together with bassist David Foster, a sometime songwriter for Yes. Badger released only two albums: "One Live Badger" (1973, with co-production help from Jon Anderson) and "White Lady" (1974).

After a brief period touring with David Bowie during 1975-1976, Kaye joined Detective, a band with slightly funky arrangements, releasing two albums: "Detective" (1977) and "It Takes One To Know One" (1977), as well as the promo-only "Live From The Atlantic Studios" (1978). Living in Los Angeles, Kaye then moved on to join Badfinger in 1979, playing on their '79 tour and their 1981 album "Say No More".

As Badfinger was going on hiatus, Kaye was making up his mind to record a solo album when he met accidentally with Chris Squire in a party and was invited to join him in some free studio sessions. This encounter led to Kaye joining "Cinema," a new group formed by Squire, drummer Alan White and South African guitarist Trevor Rabin.

Unintentional reunion and 90125

Some sessions were produced by Trevor Horn (who had been the Yes singer on the "Drama" album and tour, in 1980) and an album was prepared. In the final stages of production, the name Cinema was discarded when Jon Anderson was invited to sing and Yes was, again and unintentionally, reborn.

Kaye was absent for the latter part of the "90125" recording sessions, so Rabin played some keyboards in the recorded songs as well. He was also absent in the video for "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (replaced by Eddie Jobson).

Kaye had actually left Yes and rejoined Badfinger for a tour in the fall of 1983, but elected to re-join Yes at the tour's conclusion in October. He therefore re-joined just before the release of "90125", the top-selling album by the band, which contained Yes' only Number One single, "Owner of a Lonely Heart", as well as the track "Cinema", which was awarded a Grammy as Best Instrumental.

The tour that followed was the best grossing ever for the group, ending in February 1985 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In January 1985 Yes played in front of hundreds of thousands of fans at the Rock in Rio festival in Rio de Janeiro (and transmitted live all over the world). An EP, "" and a couple of singles were all the live material that was released from this successful tour, but a video of the same name was a commercial success and was nominated for a Grammy.

On the 9012Live album, an extra credit is found for keyboardist Casey Young. It was revealed that while Kaye played keyboards on stage for the tour, Young played additional keyboards backstage, while remaining unseen from the audience. (This is not surprising given the technology of the time and the demands placed on the keyboards by the intricate 90125 songs. Kaye has said in an interview that he did not use MIDI until the Big Generator tour.)

80s and 90s

"Big Generator" (1987) was the next album, followed by another extensive tour. During this time, Tony committed to doing an album for Cinema Records, an electronic New Age music label that had then released the successful "Seen One Earth" from Pete Bardens. However, in spite of the label actively advertising the project, it never was released. In an interview with "Keyboard Magazine" in 1991, he stated that while he liked the material, he felt it really served only as background music needing a singer, and as such he abandoned the work.

Also in 1991, Yes's lineup exploded with three former members (Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, and Bill Bruford) joining forces with the band's five-man lineup. They all toured together in 1991 and 1992, in a show called "Around the World in 80 Dates," with a revolving stage at the center of each venue. By that time, Kaye and Alan White wrote many songs together, but these haven't seen the light of an official release (if they were ever seriously recorded). In 1994, Yes released "Talk", Kaye's final album with Yes. Trevor Rabin produced it and Kaye was (uncredited) co-producer and assistant engineer. Although Tony only played the Hammond organ on "Talk", the worldwide tour that followed saw him using a wide array of keyboards. After leaving Yes in 1995, Tony offered to keep helping the band behind the scenes (in publicity and management) but none of this came to fruition.

In late 1997, a live double album called "Something's Coming" in the UK (and "Beyond and Before" in the US) was released due to the input of Peter Banks (Yes's original guitar player), containing most of the songs from every BBC radio show Yes appeared on between 1969 and 1970; that is, with the original lineup.

Recent activity

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kaye was largely retired from the music business, although he did appear on a number of archival Yes releases, including "The Word is Live". More recently, he has been involved with several projects, including a Neil Young tribute band called The Neil Deal and executive producing singer Daniela Torchia. Kaye has also been working extensively with former Yes colleague, Billy Sherwood. Kaye and other past and present Yes members appeared on three Pink Floyd tribute albums. He is now in CIRCA: with Sherwood and Alan White from Yes. In 2008, Tony Kaye toured with Badfinger again, mostly in the Hippiefest concerts.

Personal life

Tony was engaged to Chris Squire's stepdaughter, Carmen Squire, but the marriage did not happen. He since married singer/songwriter Daniela Torchia. He began a series of small businesses apart from music (such as a pizza restaurant in L.A.). He has been involved in a number of legal actions against Brian Lane (Yes' former manager) and Yes over unpaid royalties.

ee also

* Yes
* Jon Anderson
* Badfinger
* 1943 in music
* XYZ

External links

* [http://www.relayer35.com/Yescography/tonykaye.htm Tony Kaye discography]
* [http://www.bondegezou.demon.co.uk/wnalum.htm#kaye Where Are They Now? news page]
* [http://www.neildeal.com/ The Neil Deal official website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/tonykayehq Official MySpace]