Tony Kaye (born January 11, 1946) was born in England with the name Anthony John Selridge (some mistaken authors spell it "Selvidge").

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 classic 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 rock groups (The Federals , Jimmy Winston & His Reflections a.k.a. Winston's Fumbs and Bittersweet ) before being invited by a fellow named Chris Squire to join a new band called Yes. It was 1968, the post-psychedelic era. The original lineup of Yes was: Tony Kaye on keyboards, Peter Banks on guitar, Chris Squire on bass, Jon Anderson doing the lead 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 and Banks parts. In 1971 Yes released "The Yes Album", a true rock masterpiece, 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 invited to leave the group. Some apparent reasons were the animosity Jon Anderson showed to him during the first US tour of the band (the singer and the keyboardist being a real odd couple sharing the same bedroom) and some musical disputes with Steve Howe over solo spots in the new songs. 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 replacement keyboardists (Rick Wakeman, Patrick Moraz, Wakeman again and then Geoff Downes), until 1981, Kaye went in and out of quite a few groups as well. In 1972 he guested with ex-fellow bandmate Peter Banks on the (eponymously titled) first album by Flash; and then formed his own group: Badger, together with bassist David Foster (who coincidentally played with Anderson some years before in The Warriors and who half-penned at least two Yes songs from the early era). Badger released only two albums: "One Live Badger" (1973, this one with some co-production help from Jon Anderson) and "White Lady" (1974). Meanwhile, a Yes compilation of its two first albums, called "Yesterdays" (1975), hit the stores and kept present the name of Tony Kaye to all Yes fans.

After a brief period touring with David Bowie during 1975-6, Kaye formed Detective, a band with slightly funky arrangements, releasing three albums: "Detective" (1977), "It Takes One To Know One" (1978) and "Live" (1979). Living in Los Angeles, 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 sesions were produced by Trevor Horn (who had been the Yes singer in the "Drama" album and tour, in 1980-81) and a album was prepared. In the final stages of production, the name Cinema was discarded when Anderson was invited to sing and Yes was, again and unintentionally, reborn.

90125

The stress of the sessions made Kaye to briefly abandon the final sessions, so Rabin played some keyboards in the recorded songs as well. The resulting album was "90125", the top-selling album by the band (including its only Nº 1 single, "Owner of a Lonely Heart", as well as the track "Cinema", which was awarded a Grammy as Best Instrumental), and the tour that followed was the best grossing ever for the group, ending in January 1985 in front of hundreds of thousands of fans in Rio de Janeiro (and transmitted live all over the world). An EP, "9012Live - The Solos" and a couple of singles were all the live material that was released from this successful tour (it deserved a complete album); but a video of the same name was a commercial success and was nominated for a Grammy.

80s and 90s

"Big Generator" (1987) was the next album. Yes was stuck after Anderson left in 1988, but in 1991 the group reformed with eight former members (including Kaye and Wakeman). They all toured together in 1981 and 1982, 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 still don't see the light of an official release (if they were ever seriously recorded). In 1994 Yes released "Talk", an excellent album that was both Rabin and Kaye's swan song. Rabin produced it and Kaye was (uncredited) coproducer and assistant engineer. Although in the record Tony only played the Hammond organ, the worldwide tour that followed let him show his keyboardist talents at their very best. After that, 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 original guitar player), containing every BBC radio show Yes appered in between 1969 and 1970; that is, with the original lineup. In that album, the formative period of Kaye (and Banks) with Yes shines with full bold experimentation and lets the public know how the group sounded in its early days.

Personal life

Tony was engaged to Squire's daughter. He began a series of small businesses apart from music (such as a pizza restaurant in L.A.). His only activities linked to the music world was suing Yes for some unpaid royalties from the past and for some recognition as coauthor of some early Yes songs. He talked over doing some film soundtrack, some sessions for other artists, a solo record with guest singers and an instrumental album, but if some of these projects were actually recorded or seriously intended is still a mystery today (January 29, 2004).

Analysis

Kaye may not be as prolific in recordings as Wakeman (Rick Wakeman averaged of ten albums per year) or may not be as recognised as this and other keyboard colleagues, but his tasty style, his excellent and elegant mood changes, his measured use of electronics blended with piano and organ and his creativity both in the '60s and the '80s make him not only an integral part of Yes but also a symbol of both pure and progressive rock. In rock, K stands for "keyboards" as well as for "Kaye".

See also

• Yes
• Alan Smithee
• List of directors
• Jon Anderson
• Badfinger
• 1943 in music
• American History X
• XYZ