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Tony Oxley

Tony Oxley, with Derek Bailey and Gavin Bryars, created one of the foundations of free improvisation in the UK through their explorations in the group Joseph Holbrooke. A detailed retrospective view of Joseph Holbrooke can be found in Bailey (1992, pp. 86-93) but, briefly, the group existed in Sheffield from 1963 to 1966, initially playing conventional jazz though by 1965 playing totally improvised pieces. The fact that the three were 'isolated' in Sheffield from developments elsewhere (John Stevens and the SME) provided an ideal environment for experimentation and development. After that the participants moved to London, Oxley becoming the house drummer at Ronnie Scott's while all the while continuing with experimental music. He was in at the beginning of the Incus label with Bailey and Evan Parker and some of his work for that label is recognised as landmarks in the development of free music. He also appeared in various (early) versions of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra

In the last 25 years he has performed and recorded in an extremely wide variety of situations, from those where an emphasis on time-keeping is important to free situations with perhaps Paul Bley at one extreme and Cecil Taylor at the other. His work with Taylor, as a member of The Feel Trio with William Parker, in duos, or augmented with other musicians (such as the quartet of Taylor, Oxley, William Parker and Derek Bailey for two concerts in London and Manchester in 1991) lasted from 1988 to 1991 and can be seen by the viewing a selection of their concert schedule.

In recent years Tony Oxley has run his own Celebration Orchestra, worked with Bill Dixon - both are painters as well as musicians, and there have been plans for multimedia presentations - and with the Austrians, violinist Andreas Schreiber and pianist Dieter Glawischnig in the trio Cercle. This group briefly toured the UK in 1997 (having played the Beijing Jazz Festival in October 1996), with displays of Oxley's paintings, and had a broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in May 1997. Oxley has also begun to work again in duo with Derek Bailey, playing, for example at the Knitting Factory in New York in September 1995, in London in November 1995 and in Vand'Oeuvre in France in May 1997. He also remains in demand to bring unconventionality to conventional settings, particularly with his 'rainforest percussion', playing for example, on ECM recordings with Paul Bley and John Surman and with the Tomasz Stanko Quartet.

Gear

His kit is highly individual thus: 'The acoustic part is: drums - eight, various sizes and texture; cymbals, fourteen, various sizes, thicknesses, weights, sounds; cowbells - five, from six inches to sixteen inches; wood surfaces - five, wood blocks and oriental skulls; saucepans - two. The amplified section of the kit is: amplified frame containing cymbals, wires, various kitchen equipment, motor generators, springs, used with 3 contact mikes (home-made), 2 volume pedals, 1 octave splitter, 1 compressor, 1 ring modulator and oscillator, 1 amplifier and two speakers.' More recently the whole kit has been slimmed down and the electronics have (probably temporarily) been put to one side, but the playing, of course, remains individualistic. A transcription of an interview with Oxley, where he discusses his current kit (1997) with Alyn Shipton in a BBC Radio 3 Broadcast is available, complete with sound clips.


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Play This!

Remembering Tony Oxley: Combination

Read "Remembering Tony Oxley: Combination" reviewed by Ian Patterson


The sad news of the passing of free-spirited English drummer/percussionist Tony Oxley on December 26, 2023, is tempered by the knowledge that his was a life well lived, and his musical legacy a lasting one. As a member of Ronnie Scott's house band in the latter half of the 1960s, Yorkshireman Oxley played with some of the greats of American jazz, and in later decades he would forge a notable musical partnership with Cecil Taylor that bequeathed a dozen live ...

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Extended Analysis

A Supreme Love

Read "A Supreme Love" reviewed by Duncan Heining


Alan Skidmore is one of the finest saxophonists to come out of the United Kingdom, Europe or indeed anywhere. In fact, it was hearing Skidmore's tenor solo on “Have You Heard?" from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966) that encouraged a young Michael Brecker to take up the instrument. Skidmore had also served his apprenticeship with blues singer Alexis Kornerin the sixties and by the end of the decade was equally well-versed in the blues and in the ...

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Album Review

Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley: ...Being Astral And All Registers - Power Of Two...

Read "...Being Astral And All Registers - Power Of Two..." reviewed by Karl Ackermann


The late free jazz icon Cecil Taylor was thought to have only recorded two duo albums in his career. One was Embraced (Pablo, 1977) with Mary Lou Williams, the other, Historic Concerts (Soul Note, 1984) with Max Roach. Both were underwhelming mismatches, with Taylor overpowering his partners. In 2020, drummer Tony Oxley found two live Taylor-Oxley recordings in his personal archives, housed in a basement in Germany. Birdland, Neuburg (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2020) was released in the Spring of that year, ...

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Album Review

Tony Oxley: Beaming

Read "Beaming" reviewed by John Eyles


Since 2010, album releases from drummer Tony Oxle (born 1938) have become increasingly scarce and poignant. A Birthday Tribute—75 Years (Incus, 2013) comprised live recordings from 1977 and 1993—featuring trombonist Paul Rutherford and guitarist Derek Bailey, respectively, both long gone—issued to mark Oxley's birthday. Its appearance on Incus was a reminder that Oxley was part of the threesome, along with Bailey and Evan Parker, which set up the influential label back in 1970. The years since ...

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Album Review

Tony Oxley: A Birthday Tribute--75 Years

Read "A Birthday Tribute--75 Years" reviewed by John Eyles


As its title indicates, this album was released to mark the occasion of drummer Tony Oxley's seventy-fifth birthday (which occurred on June 15 2013.) Fittingly, it is released on Incus, the ground-breaking label that Oxley established in 1970 with Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, frequently cited as “the first independent musician-run record label in Britain" (just about true because of the inclusion of “independent"--which rules out The Beatles' Apple label--and of “in Britain," which rules out Debut set up by ...

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Album Review

Tony Oxley: The Baptised Traveller

Read "The Baptised Traveller" reviewed by Clifford Allen


Though in hindsight many followers of British jazz and free improvisation are well aware of the impact that artists like Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley have had on the course of modern creative music, the original liner notes on this, Oxley’s first album as leader, point to a presentation of new music by none other than Ronnie Scott’s preferred house drummer. Indeed, shortly before The Baptised Traveller was released, Oxley appeared alongside Kenny Clare on Scott’s Live at ...

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