| Tony Kaye (musician) |
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Tony Kaye (born January 11 , 1946 ) is a British musician born in Leicester , England with the name '''Anthony John Selvidge''' (some mistaken authors spell it "Selridge"). He was the original pianist and organist for the Progressive Rock group Yes . 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, THE BAND During the 1960s he played with Johnny Taylor's Star Combo and later recorded a handful of singles with at least three different '' (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 Mellotron s. 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 () and "White Lady" (1974). Meanwhile, a Yes compilation of its two first albums, called '' Yesterdays '' (1975), hit the stores and all sold well. After a brief period touring with , Kaye then moved on to join Badfinger in 1981. He 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 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. 90125 Kaye was absent for the latter part of the '''' 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 with Sherwood and Alan White from Yes. PERSONAL LIFE Tony was engaged to Chris Squire 's stepdaughter, Carmen Squire, but the marriage did not happen. 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. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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