Tony Kinsey

Cyril Anthony "Tony" Kinsey (born October 11, 1927 in Sutton Coldfield ) is a British jazz drummer, band leader and composer, where he later received drum lessons from Tommy Webster.

Kinsey is the son of a pianist and a violinist. He learned piano and drums from the age of seven. He played with his pianist friend, Ronnie Ball , and they were together in the summer season of 1947 in Jackson Cox's band in Newquay , played in Billy Forrest's band in Southsea (Hampshire) and at Wigan Palace. In 1948 he moved to London, where he played in Art Thompson's band, and as a freelancer before joining pianist Ivor Noone's band on RMS Queen Mary . He used the time of several Atlantic crossings to New York for drum lessons with Cozy Cole and Bill West . In 1949 he played in the quintet of Revell Terry , Leon Roy and in the sextet of Victor Feldman before he was a member of the Johnny Dankworth Seven for sixteen months in 1950 . He then played with Jack Nathan and in the trio of Ronnie Ball and founded his own trio in 1952, with which he played at the Flamingo Club in London. He continued to lead his own combos (mostly quintets) until the 1980s, worked as a studio musician and was also active as a composer and arranger. He composed for advertising, but also a string quartet and a musical about the life of George Eliot and arranged for big bands. From 1974 he led his own big band.

He made numerous recordings, among others with Tubby Hayes , Bill Le Sage , Ronnie Scott , Johnny Dankworth, Lena Horne (whom he accompanied in 1952 at the London Palladium, as well as other US stars traveling through), Ella Fitzgerald , Ben Webster , Billie Holiday , Joe Harriott , Sweets Edison , Buddy DeFranco , Clark Terry , Oscar Peterson , Cliff Richard , Annie Ross and Sarah Vaughn .

In 1959 he made a recording for the BBC Red Bird Jazz & Poetry based on a poem by Christopher Logue after Pablo Neruda , which was also released as an album.

Lexical entry

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .
• John Chilton Who's Who of British Jazz , Continuum 2004.