Charles Tyler

Albert Ayler: Albert Ayler 1965: Spirits Rejoice & Bells Revisited

by Mark Corroto
November 28, 2020

Being that 2020 is more than half a century since Albert Ayler (1936-70) recorded this music, the best way to approach might be through what the Zen Buddhists call Shoshin. Roughly translated as “beginner's mind," or the ability to experience things as if for the first time. Since we cannot transport ourselves back to 1965, taking a posture of readiness and being open to experience the revelatory nature of this music might be the best plan of attack.

Charles Tyler: Charles Tyler Ensemble

by Raul d'Gama Rose
November 21, 2009

Charles Tyler Ensemble possesses a profound quality. Unlike many records of the mid-1960s, it burns with a quiet blue flame, eschewing the intellectual posturing that characterized much new music in the avant-garde era. Tyler, a baritone saxophonist who became an acolyte of Albert Ayler--following him to New York in the early part of the movement--transposes Ayler's famous gravitas to the horn of a higher register, the alto. This act alone gives his spare and deeply spiritual compositions ...

Charles Tyler Ensemble: Charles Tyler Ensemble

by Jerry D'Souza
November 9, 2009

Charles Tyler was an innovative musician who could unfurl a maelstrom of ideas from just a spark. He played with fire and spirit, finding his muse in free jazz and filling his music with bold inventions.

Tyler met Albert Ayler when he was 14. He later went on to play with Ayler, whose influence can be heard in his approach. Tyler, however, held his own shining in the company of other free jazz votaries like Cecil Taylor, Dewey Redman, David ...

Charles Tyler: Saga of the Outlaws

by Clifford Allen
March 24, 2009

Charles Tyler Saga of the Outlaws Nessa Records 2009

Saga of the Outlaws is just about the most fitting title one could expect for saxophonist Charles Tyler's fifth LP under his own name. Tyler was more than an outlaw (or a gladiator, to paraphrase Stanley Crouch), but unfortunately his name crops up rather rarely in discussions of jazz's historical vanguard. He traversed the Midwest, from Kentucky to Indiana to Cleveland, Ohio where ...