Tony Oxley | |
|---|---|
 Oxley at the Moers Festival, Germany, in 2008 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 15 June 1938 Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 26 December 2023 (aged 85) |
| Genres | Avant-garde jazz, free jazz, free improvisation, fusion |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument | Drums |
| Years active | 1960s–2020s |
| Labels | Incus, FMP |
Tony Oxley (15 June 1938 – 26 December 2023) was an English free improvising drummer and electronic musician.
Born in Sheffield, Oxley moved to London in 1966 and became house drummer at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club where he accompanied visiting musicians such as Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, Charlie Mariano, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Evans until the early 1970s. Each year between 1969 and 1972 he topped the Melody Maker annual jazz readers poll for drummers. In 1970 Oxley helped found Incus Records, with Derek Bailey and others; the label would go on to release more than 50 albums.
In 1993 he joined a quartet with Tomasz Stańko, Bobo Stenson and Anders Jormin, and regularly released albums under his own name throughout the 2000s. His last albums were Unreleased 1974–2016 (2022) and The New World (2023), both released on the Discus label.