Anthony John Selvidge (born 11 January 1946), known professionally as Tony Kaye, is an English keyboardist, best known as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes.

[4] His grandmother was a concert pianist and his grandfather a jazz saxophonist; upon her death she left Kaye her grand piano which he played on when he was little.

[4] During his time at grammar school, he formed a jazz trio with friends, and at fifteen, became a member of the Leicester-based Danny Rogers Orchestra, playing four gigs a week.

[7] After Kaye left school, he chose not to pursue classical piano due to the heavy competition and a lack of self-belief.

He also wished to avoid teaching music, which led to his three-year enrolment at Leicester Art College studying advertising and design while performing in groups or the big band in his spare time.

He had moved to London, and visited The Marquee club to watch bands play, including keyboardist Graham Bond whose style became a strong influence.

[6] Kaye had acquired a Vox Continental, a transistor-based combo organ, while in the big band and until seeing Bond, had played it "like a piano".

[7] Kaye landed a position in The Federals through an advertisement in Melody Maker and played on their singles recorded between 1963 and 1967,[6][5][8] Mainly a covers and comedy showband, the group opened for Roy Orbison for a European tour in 1965.

[5] In 1968, Kaye was invited to attend rehearsals with members of Mabel Greer's Toyshop, a London-based psychedelic rock band who were forming a new, full-time group.

During rehearsals for their next album, Fragile (1971), Kaye began to have problems with new guitarist Steve Howe who kept insisting the band expand their sound with electronic keyboards such as the Mellotron and synthesiser.

He played on the self-titled debut album by Flash, a band founded by ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks but declined their offer to become a full-time member.

Kaye then formed Badger with bassist David Foster, a friend of Jon Anderson's who also co-wrote some early Yes songs.

[7][12] Kaye also re-united with Yes bandmate Chris Squire and new Yes drummer Alan White when they appeared on the Eddie Harris album E.H. in the U.K. (1973), playing Moog on "I Waited for You" and "Conversations of Everything and Nothing".

Shortly after releasing Badger's White Lady, Kaye recalled the group "wasn't really doing anything" and decided to leave England and relocate to Los Angeles.

[7] The Isolar – 1976 Tour reached North America and Europe from February to May 1976; Kaye is featured on the bonus live tracks on the 1990 and 2010 reissues of the album.

Much of their new material derived from a set of demos produced by Rabin that displayed a more pop-oriented and commercial style of rock music, and Squire thought of Kaye as their ideal keyboardist due to his simpler, more textural approach.

Kaye accepted Squire's offer and entered rehearsals in London under the name Cinema with producer Trevor Horn for 90125.

However, conflicts between Kaye and Horn led to the former's exit after several months,[20] leaving Rabin to handle the remaining keyboard parts.

[22] He was absent from the group during filming of the video to "Owner of a Lonely Heart", the lead single from 90125, shots of Jobson having been removed from the sequence as much as possible.

Yes then recorded Big Generator with Kaye playing a majority of the keyboard parts with some minor assistance from Trevor Rabin.

The album was fully written, but it was recorded with a drum machine which Kaye grew tired of, and he felt the music better suited with vocals and backing musicians, so he abandoned the work.

Between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Kaye was largely retired from the music industry, although he did appear on a number of archival Yes releases, including Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969–1970 and The Word is Live.

Kaye's debut solo album, End of Innocence, was released on 10 September 2021 through Spirit of Unicorn Music and distributed via Cherry Red Records.