Tony Hymas

Tony Hymas
Born (1943-09-23) 23 September 1943
Genres Progressive jazz
Occupation(s) Musician, composer
Instruments keyboards, Piano
Associated acts PhD, Jeff Beck, Stanley Clarke, Jack Bruce, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie

Anthony James Keith "Tony" Hymas [1] is an English keyboard player, pianist and composer.

Hymas started as a chorister at Exeter Cathedral, where his contemporaries included composer and cathedral organist Barry Ferguson, and singer and pianist Roger Cleverdon. On leaving school, Hymas studied piano with Harold Rubens at the Royal Academy of Music. As company pianist for the Ballet Rambert in its resurgent 'modern' form, Hymas wrote a substitute score for Glen Tetley's Rag Dances over the course of eight days. After his employment at Rambert, Hymas found work in the busy London session scene of the 1970s.

He played alongside Jack Bruce in the Jack Bruce Band between 1976 and 1978. He subsequently became one of Jeff Beck's musicians, first appearing on record with him on the 1980 album There & Back. Over the years he has written many tunes for Beck, including "Angel Footsteps" and "Brush with the Blues".[2][3] In 1980, Hymas and fellow Jeff Beck Band member Simon Philips recruited Scottish singer Jim Diamond to form the trio Ph.D., where they scored a major Top 10 UK hit with the song "I Won't Let You Down" in 1982. The group disbanded in 1983 following poor sales of their subsequent singles, and Diamond's decision to return to his solo career. Hymas continued to collaborate with Diamond on his solo projects; the duo released a third Ph.D. album in 2009, entitled Three, and remained active until Diamond's death in 2015.

His latest works are CDs for Disques Nato: De l'origine du Monde (2010), Chroniques de resistance (2013), and, for Hope Street (Nato), an album with the band Ursus Minor, I Will Not Take "But" for an Answer (2010). In 2016, he recorded an album of piano arrangements (transcriptions) of songs by Léo Ferré, Tony Hymas joue Léo Ferré. A fourth album by Ursus Minor, What matters now, will be issued in the autumn. More piano discs—such as Etudes (Debussy), Concord Sonata (Ives)—are in preparation.

References

  1. ↑ "Albums by Tony Hymas: Discography, songs, biography, and listening guide". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  2. ↑ Katz, Larry (March 17, 1999). Beck is back; Who's returned to rock including a stop at The Orpheum? Who else?, Boston Herald ("That somebody was Tony Hymas, Beck's longtime keyboardist. Hymas had written a bunch of tunes, many of which ...")
  3. ↑ Tony Hymas Profile, Magna Carta Records, Retrieved May 21, 2011
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