Tony Kaye: Retired in 1996 but began to write music after 9/11…..

Progheads are probably aware of Tony Kaye as he played keyboards in Yes. No Kaye soon will release his debut album End Of Innocence and probably there are many happy progheads now?

Tony Kaye is as mentioned above one of the former Yes keyboard players and also one of Yes’s founding members. Tony Kaye also was part of bands like Badger, Circa, Flash, Detective and Yoso.

Tony Kaye retired in 1996, and came out of retirement the week following the events of 9/11 and began to write music which makes up his first solo album. The power of its music helped Tony to process the day that became the End Of Innocence.

Tony Kaye (actually Anthony John Selvidge, born 11 January 1946 in Leicester, England) is a British keyboardist, best known for his time as a pianist and organist in the progressive rock band Yes in the periods 1968 to 1971 and 1983 to 1995. Kaye was the original pianist and organist in Yes, and was replaced in 1971 by Rick Wakeman. After his first time with Yes, he started the prog-rock group Badger. Later he helped start the bands Flash and Detective before playing on Badfinger’s last album in 1981. He currently plays in the band Circa: which includes former Yes member Billy Sherwood. Both Kaye and Sherwood are also in the band Yoso, along with former Toto vocalist Bobby Kimball.

Kaye have been very active in 2021, and as a fun it`s 50 years since he first levaed Yes.

For a retired musician, Tony Kaye has been very active in recent years. 2021 marks 50 years since he left Yes! The album End Of Innocence is with cover art from the awesome artist Roger Dean. Kaye is inspired by Vangelis rather than Rick Wakeman-like classical/ orchestral compositional approach. The album comes with a booklet that contains a narrative for each track, explaining the concept and context it is illustrating.

Kaye watched the events of 9/11 unfold and as many people around the world he was shocked! But he was also inspired to get his keyboards out and pour his experience and the emotions raised into the often dark music but also beautiful music. The album starts with Kaye`s wife singer/songwriter Daniela Torchia and the haunting song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. After the excellent opening comes one after the other intense and and well-crafted song!

Tracklist:

1 Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/Twilight Time

2 911 Overture

3 NYC Blues

4 Battle Cry

5 285 Fulton Street

6 Let’s Roll

7 Tug Of War

8 Flight 11

9 Towers Fall

10 Sweetest Dreams

11 Aftermath

12 Heroes

13 The Battle

14 Hope And Triumph

15 Homecoming

16 Ground Zero

Line-up:

Tony Kaye (Yes, Detective, Circa:) – all instruments

   With

Dani Torchia – vocals

Jay Schellen (Circa:) – drums