Tony Oxley (born 15 June 1938) is an English free improvising drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.

Oxley is recognized for his contributions to music with numerous awards and honors, including a honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield and a lifetime achievement award from the Jazz Journalists Association. He continues to perform and record today, and his innovative approach to drumming has had a lasting impact on the jazz and experimental music scenes.

Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by the age of eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen.

While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960, he studied music theory and improved his drumming technique.

From 1960 to 1964 he led a quartet which performed locally in England. In 1963, he began working with Gavin Bryars and guitarist Derek Bailey, in a trio known as Joseph Holbrooke. Oxley moved to London in 1966 and became house drummer at Ronnie Scott's, where he accompanied visiting musicians such as Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, Charlie Mariano, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Evans until the early 1970s. He was a member of bands led by Gordon Beck, Alan Skidmore, and Mike Pyne.

In 1969, Oxley appeared on the John McLaughlin album Extrapolation and formed a quintet with Bailey, Jeff Clyne, Evan Parker, and Kenny Wheeler, releasing the album The Baptised Traveller. Following this album the group was joined by Paul Rutherford on trombone and became a sextet, releasing the 1970 album 4 Compositions for Sextet. That same year Oxley helped found Incus Records with Bailey and others and Musicians Cooperative.

He received a three-month artist-in-residence job at the Sydney Conservatorium in Australia in 1970. Around this time he joined the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and collaborated with Howard Riley.
In 1973 he became a tutor at the Jazz Summer School in Barry, South Wales, and in 1974 he formed the band Angular Apron. Through the 1980s he worked with Tony Coe and Didier Levallet and started the Celebration Orchestra during the latter half of the decade.

In the late 1980s, Oxley toured and recorded with Anthony Braxton, and also began a working relationship with Cecil Taylor.

In 1993, he joined a quartet with Tomasz Stańko, Bobo Stenson, and Anders Jormin. In 2000 he released the album Triangular Screen with the Tony Oxley Project 1, a trio with Ivar Grydeland and Tonny Kluften.

Tony Oxley died on 26 December 2023, at the age of 85.