* En anglais uniquement
Andrew Cyrille is among the most pre-eminent free jazz percussionists to emerge in the 1960s. Few vanguard drummers can play with his grace, authority, unflagging energy, and absolute power, tempered only by his constant sense of propriety.
Cyrille is at his best in an utterly free context, as evidenced by his solo debut, 1969's
What About?, and 1974's Dialogue of the Drums with
Milford Graves.
Cyrille spent much of the '60s with
Walt Dickerson and the '70s with
Cecil Taylor. He has released over 50 titles as a leader or co-leader, including 1981's
Special People, 1988's
Something in Return with
Jimmy Lyons, and Galaxies with Russian pianist
Vladimir Tarasov. In 1993 he began a long, widely celebrated association with pianist
Borah Bergman on the album
The Human Factor. In the 21st century,
Cyrille participated in dozens of collaborative recordings, most notably with pianist
Søren Kjærgaard and bassist
Ben Street, including 2010's Open Opus. In 2011, he collaborated with Haitian Fascination on the seminal Route De Frères. After co-billed outings with
Bill McHenry on 2014's
Us Free: Fish Stories (that also included bassist
Henry Grimes), the drummer released his
ECM debut,
The Declaration of Musical Independence, leading a quartet with
Street, guitarist
Bill Frisell and keyboardist
Richard Teitelbaum. A trio effort titled
Lebroba with
Frisell and
Wadada Leo Smith followed in 2018, and in 2021,
Cyrille's quartet returned with The News. The following year,
Cyrille, with trumpeter
Enrico Rava and bassist
William Parker, issued 2 Blues for Cecil on TUM.
Cyrille began playing drums in a drum and bugle corps at the age of 11. At 15, he played in a trio with guitarist
Eric Gale. For a period in his teens,
Cyrille studied chemistry before enrolling in Juilliard School of Music in 1958. In the late '50s and early '60s, he worked with such mainstream jazzers as
Mary Lou Williams,
Roland Hanna,
Roland Kirk,
Coleman Hawkins, and
Junior Mance. He recorded with
Hawkins, and with tenor saxophonist
Bill Barron for the Savoy label.
Cyrille succeeded
Sunny Murray as
Cecil Taylor's drummer in 1964. He stayed with the pianist until 1975, during which time he played on many of
Taylor's classic albums. He also played with a good many other top musicians, including
Marion Brown,
Grachan Moncur III, and
Jimmy Giuffre. He also served for a time as artist in residence at Antioch College and recorded a solo percussion album, 1969's
What About?, on BYG.
Cyrille,
Rashied Ali, and
Milford Graves collaborated on a series of mid-'70s concerts entitled "Dialogue of the Drums." Beginning in 1975 and lasting into the '80s,
Cyrille led his own group called
Maono, which included tenor saxophonist
David S. Ware, trumpeter Ted Daniel, pianist
Sonelius Smith and, at various times, bassists
Lisle Atkinson and Nick DiGeronimo. During this period,
Cyrille also played with the Group, a band that included violinist
Billy Bang, bassist
Sirone, altoist Brown, and trumpeter
Ahmed Abdullah. With
Graves,
Don Moye, and
Kenny Clarke,
Cyrille recorded the all-percussion album
Pieces of Time on Soul Note in 1983. When not leading his own bands, he worked ubiquitously as a sideman with, among others,
John Carter,
Muhal Richard Abrams, and
Jimmy Lyons.
Cyrille continued as a leading player into the late '90s, recording rather prolifically for Black Saint/Soul Note, FMP, and DIW.
That activity continued well into the 21st century. In 2000, he released the trio date C/D/E in collaboration with bassist
Mark Dresser and saxophonist
Marty Ehrlich. In 2002 he played duo concerts with
Anthony Braxton, which were released in two volumes on Intact as Duo Palindrome 2002. Two years later he was part of
the Mary Lou Williams Collective with pianist
Geri Allen, bassist
Buster Williams, and fellow drummer
Billy Hart for the album
Zodiac Suite: Revisited. That same year, he issued Blue Flame in duet with saxophonist
Greg Osby and the trio date Witch's Scream with
John Tchicai and
Reggie Workman, both issued on TUM. Between 2008 and 2011 he issued two recordings with pianist
David Haney on CIMP, and three trio offerings with Danish pianist
Søren Kjærgaard and bassist
Ben Street for ILK. With
Eric Revis and
Kris Davis, he released 2013's
City of Asylum for Clean Feed before revisiting the
Street-
Kjærgaard trio for Syvmileskridt.
Cyrille, ever the picture of musical diversity, played in a trio with saxophonist
Bill McHenry and bassist
Henry Grimes for 2014's
Us Free: Fish Stories on Fresh Sound New Talent, and the following year with saxophonist
Mikko Innanen and bassist
William Parker on the double-length set Song for a New Decade for TUM. In 2016 he debuted the
Andrew Cyrille Quartet on
ECM with
Street, guitarist
Bill Frisell, and pianist
Richard Teitelbaum for the critically acclaimed
Declaration of Musical Independence.
Cyrille returned to CIMP in May of 2018 for another two recordings with
Haney: the duo offering Clandestine and a trio set that included bassist
Dominic Duval titled Conspiracy a Go Go. Later that year,
Cyrille released his sophomore leader date for
ECM. Titled
Lebroba, the drummer's collaborators included
Frisell and trumpeter
Wadada Leo Smith.
In 2020,
Cyrille and
Cécile McLorin Salvant were the jazz artists who received the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Awards. It marked the first time the institution upped its recipient total from six artists to eight -- the others were from the worlds of theater and dance. In August of 2021,
Cyrille released his second quartet offering for
ECM, The News. In January 2022, he, trumpeter
Enrico Rava, and bassist
William Parker issued the
Cecil Taylor tribute offering 2 Blues for Cecil on Finland's TUM label. ~ Chris Kelsey & Thom Jurek