Andrew Cyrille

[clifford_thornton]

I thought it counted as Grachan's recording. Not so?

[Hot Ptah]

Cyrille played the single greatest drum solo I have ever heard live, on a gig with David Murray. He deserves much wider acclaim.

[bertrand]

I guess I meant 'contract' rather than 'date'.

Bertrand.

Edited October 23, 2006 by bertrand

[Swinger]

X Man and Good to Go, a Tribute to Bu are all excellent.

He played with Greg Osby in Helsinki in February.I really liked the gig.The gig consisted Monk tunes and Osby's own songs.

AND his drum solos are really interesting in my opinion.

[jlhoots]

3 Black Kings with Roland Hanna & Richard Davis.

Not sure if it's still in print.

[Guy Berger]

The recent Time Being w/ Trio 3 is terrific.

Nate, can you elaborate? It got a 3 (out or 5) star review in the UK Guardian.

Guy

[Rooster_Ties]

Cyrille played the single greatest drum solo I have ever heard live, on a gig with David Murray. He deserves much wider acclaim.

Was that here in KC, circa 1995 or '96?? (At one of the old 18th & Vine festivals, back when they were outside - before the museum and redevelopment.)

I also saw that gig (if we're thinking of the same one), and Cyrille was pretty damn amazing as I recall.

Joe, you were there too, right??

[Hot Ptah]

Cyrille played the single greatest drum solo I have ever heard live, on a gig with David Murray. He deserves much wider acclaim.

Was that here in KC, circa 1995 or '96?? (At one of the old 18th & Vine festivals, back when they were outside - before the museum and redevelopment.)

I also saw that gig (if we're thinking of the same one), and Cyrille was pretty damn amazing as I recall.

Joe, you were there too, right??

Yes, that was the gig! Who was on bass--I remember it was a trio but can't remember the bass player.

[Nate Dorward]

The recent Time Being w/ Trio 3 is terrific.

Nate, can you elaborate? It got a 3 (out or 5) star review in the UK Guardian.

Guy

Yeah, I saw that--I have no idea why (especially since, as I recall, the actual text of the review by Fordham was positive, just the star rating was ehh). It's one of my favourite releases from this year.

What I wrote for STN:

Trio 3 (Oliver Lake / Reggie Workman / Andrew Cyrille)

Time Being

Intakt CD 106

The members of Trio 3 are jazz legends – present at some of modern jazz’s pivotal moments (Workman with Coltrane at the Vanguard, Cyrille the driving-motor of Cecil Taylor’s band at the moment his music underwent seismic shifts in the 1960s, Lake a founding member of the WSQ) as well as being notable leaders in their own right – but they’re not content to be wise old owls: Time Being, their fourth album together, is jazz at its riskiest and most intuitive. Unlike earlier albums the new CD is split evenly between spontaneous improvs and compositions, though the music’s anything-can-happen eventfulness tends to blur such distinctions anyway. In this unstable musical environment, alive to every flickering shift of mood, the players nonetheless keep discreetly in touch with a traditional jazz swing feel, rarely letting it emerge unequivocally but still usually working across or to the side of an implied pulse. Lake’s salty, squiggly sax-playing is fascinatingly hard to pin down: his crowing lyricism comes off as joyous and wounded at the same time. The album’s knockout performances, though, are by Workman and Cyrille, one of the great rhythm-section combinations in modern jazz. On this album their contributions are very much part of that tradition in jazz where music and speech become indistinguishable – I’m thinking in particular of the classic Mingus-Dolphy exchanges. The album is full of such moments of uncanny articulacy, above all the tripartite soliloquys on “Equilateral” and the bass-drums duet on “Special People.” Time Being is state-of-the-art free jazz, marked by an eloquence and spaciousness which actually increase rather than impede the pieces’ tumbling momentum; and the excellent studio recording allows you to hear every detail of the ricocheting three-way interaction.

[Guy Berger]

Wow, that's a ringing endorsement! Who sells Intakt cds for cheap?

Guy

[Nate Dorward]

Cadence is $17, DMG $16...... no idea where you can find them cheaper! Verge is $19 Canadian.

[paul secor]

Andrew w. Cecil live in the 60's - it didn't get any better than that.

Of course, he's still doing it great. The hat hut/hat music sides with Jimmy Lyons are well worth hearing, as are the Lyons Black Saints - I'll throw in a mention of Nuba w. Lyons & Jeanne Lee, since I don't think anyone else has.

I like a couple of recordings he did with the John Lindberg Ensemble (J.L., Wadada Leo Smith, Larry Ochs, & A.C.) - The Catbird Sings and A Tree Frog Tonality.

Finally, a couple of Soul Notes with James Newton - one quartet, one trio - The X-Man and Good To Go, with a Tribute to Bu, are also fine recordings.

[Spontooneous]

Cyrille played the single greatest drum solo I have ever heard live, on a gig with David Murray.

I can truthfully say the same thing.

But the solo I'm thinking of wasn't at the 18th and Vine Festival in '95 or '96 (yes, I was there). It was about 1990 at the Grand Emporium, of all places. It was a Murray quartet with John Hicks and Fred Hopkins.

They closed with "Mr. P.C." Cyrille played one chorus on every part of the drumset. One exclusively on the snare's head, one exclusively on the snare's rim, one exclusively on the side of the snare, one exclusively on the snare's stand, etc. -- all the way around the set. Each cymbal was soloed on for one chorus with sticks -- then he grabbed each cymbal and bent it rhythmically for a chorus.

When he'd run out of drumset pieces, he beat out one chorus each on his chest, his arms, his hands, his legs.

This display went on for 10-15 minutes. The 12-bar chorus pattern remained clear throughout. The tempo was way up, and he bent it only a little.

Besides being a great drum solo, it felt like a great blues performance too.

[Hot Ptah]

Cyrille played the single greatest drum solo I have ever heard live, on a gig with David Murray.

I can truthfully say the same thing.

But the solo I'm thinking of wasn't at the 18th and Vine Festival in '95 or '96 (yes, I was there). It was about 1990 at the Grand Emporium, of all places. It was a Murray quartet with John Hicks and Fred Hopkins.

They closed with "Mr. P.C." Cyrille played one chorus on every part of the drumset. One exclusively on the snare's head, one exclusively on the snare's rim, one exclusively on the side of the snare, one exclusively on the snare's stand, etc. -- all the way around the set. Each cymbal was soloed on for one chorus with sticks -- then he grabbed each cymbal and bent it rhythmically for a chorus.

When he'd run out of drumset pieces, he beat out one chorus each on his chest, his arms, his hands, his legs.

This display went on for 10-15 minutes. The 12-bar chorus pattern remained clear throughout. The tempo was way up, and he bent it only a little.

Besides being a great drum solo, it felt like a great blues performance too.

I was there and I remember that performance. It was truly great.

[Spontooneous]

You weren't the drunk guy yelling at the band because they weren't a blues act, were you?

[Hot Ptah]

You weren't the drunk guy yelling at the band because they weren't a blues act, were you?

Hah! No.

[Uncle Skid]

Any thoughts on this one?

Archie Shepp & Roswell Rudd -- Live in New York

Cyrille - Drums, Grachan Moncur III (tb), Reggie Workman (b)

I see there was an earlier discussion about this recording, but not much about Cyrille specifically.

[Guy Berger]

Metamusicians Stomp is fantastic.  I had always assumed it would be much more abstract given the associations with CT, but it's more of an edgy post-bop date.

[HutchFan]

Some of my favorite records with Andrew Cyrille as a sideman are John Carter's "Roots and Folklore" series -- particularly Castles of Ghana and Fields.

Incredible drumming on incredible records.

[mjazzg]

The Black Saint box is a revelation. Some great James Newton on it too

[uli]

looking very much forward to hear Cyrille twice this weekend at constellation, fri w Dave Burrell and Harrison Bankhead and sat w Trio 3.

[mjzee]

Cyrille is a real force of nature.  He's 75!  Saw him last year with Trio 3, and enjoyed the Black Saint box.

[sidewinder]

Cyrille is a real force of nature.  He's 75! 

He looks at least 20 years younger than his real age IMO. In good shape !

[paul secor]

I saw and heard him almost 50 years ago. Great to know that he's still going strong - amazing to think that he was only six years older than I and was playing the way he was.

 

[brownie]

Andrew has been a friend for half a  century. Wish I aged as  graciously as he.

The Black Saint box is a  set I keep returning  to. ...