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Andrew Cyrille

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Andrew Cyrille is an American avant-garde jazz drummer, born on 10 November 1939 in Brooklyn, New York, into a Haitian family. He began with a science degree at St. John's University, but was already playing jazz and switched to the Juilliard School. His first teachers were Willie Jones and Lenny McBrowne. They introduced him to Max Roach, but his great example became Philly Joe Jones. His first paid work was as an accompanist to the singer Nellie Lutcher, and early on he recorded with Coleman Hawkins.

Music and breakthrough

The trumpeter Ted Curson introduced him to the pianist Cecil Taylor when he was eighteen. In 1965 Cyrille became a member of Taylor's group, with which he worked for fifteen years. Alongside this he built a career of his own. In 1974 he recorded the drum duet Dialogue of the Drums with Milford Graves. Records under his own name later included Junction in 1977, Nuba in 1979 and The Navigator in 1983. He also played with David Murray, Carla Bley, Marilyn Crispell and Reggie Workman, and was a member of Trio 3 with Oliver Lake.

Influence

Cyrille plays with power and elegance. He thinks like a composer and keeps an overview of the group, and his playing connects abstraction with conventional jazz and African-inflected rhythms. For the course he is above all an example of a drummer who, in free jazz, gave melody and structure to what might otherwise have seemed chaos.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Dialogue of the Drums and notice how two drummers answer one another. Try to hear where the rhythms coincide and where they diverge.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: Artists