* En anglais uniquement
Before he passed away at the age of 64 from pneumonia, drummer
Denis Charles enjoyed a diverse and nomadic career. Born in St. Croix,
Charles began his professional musical career at the age of seven playing bongos with a local band.
Charles moved to New York in 1945. Enamored deeply with
Art Blakey's physical style,
Charles began playing anywhere and everywhere. He met
Cecil Taylor in 1954 and the two began to play together, culminating in
Taylor's 1958 set,
Looking Ahead. After this stint with
Taylor,
Charles met and played with
Steve Lacy,
Gil Evans, and
Jimmy Giuffre (
Charles was the drummer that
Giuffre decided was his last and began recording without one).
Charles also met drummer
Ed Blackwell, who would become his greatest influence.
Blackwell's polyrhythmic approach sat well with
Charles, who was reconnecting with the rhythms of his island childhood. When
Charles met
Sonny Rollins (who also has Caribbean roots), they recorded a lackluster set of calypso-influenced jazz tunes. Undaunted and forever itinerant,
Charles returned to
Lacy's band and stayed though 1964. In 1967, he played with
Archie Shepp and
Don Cherry, but fell onto hard times until 1971. He became a fixture on New York's downtown scene, guested on dozens of recordings, and played tours with
Frank Lowe,
David Murray,
Charles Tyler,
Billy Bang, and others.
Charles played funk, all kinds of jazz, rock, and even Caribbean folk music. His first of three recordings under his own name was a set of Crucian material called Queen Mary, after a sugarcane field worker who led a worker's insurrection against the Danes. After a final tour with
Wilber Morris,
Charles fell ill and passed away in his sleep. ~ Thom Jurek