Tony Oxley

Tony Oxley is a drummer active in free jazz and free improvisation. He can be heard on John McLaughlin's Extrapolation from 1968. He also collaborated briefly with

Tony Oxley is a drummer active in free jazz and free improvisation. He can be heard on John McLaughlin's Extrapolation from 1968. He also collaborated briefly with Vangelis in the early 1970s. In the 1980's he was invited to play with the American free pianist Cecil Taylor; with bassist William Parker, they became The Feel Trio, recordings of which can be found on FMP [not to mention the mammoth 10-CD set recorded live in London in the early-millenium, Two T's For a Lovely T]. His duo FMP CD with the German free pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, Digger's Harvest, is a treat. Oxley's playing has been described [in the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD - see Cecil Taylor entry, Celebrated Blazons]as "a unique blend of lumpen momentum and detailed percussive colour" - a description that does some though not by any means complete justice to the sheer range, flexibility, sensitivity and power of his playing.