The Declaration of Musical Independence Andrew Cyrille Quartet

• 1Coltrane Time04:58
• 2Kaddish05:10
• 3Sanctuary04:16
• 4Say05:00
• 5Dazzling (Perchordally Yours)09:52
• 6Herky Jerky03:25
• 7Begin03:10
• 8Manfred04:03
• 9Song for Andrew No. 105:38
• Total Runtime45:32

Info for The Declaration of Musical Independence

The great jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille – whose associations have ranged from a long, vintage collaboration with Cecil Taylor to co-leading the collective Trio 3 with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman – makes his ECM leader debut with The Declaration of Musical Independence. Featuring a quartet with guitar luminary Bill Frisell, keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum and bassist Ben Street, the album kicks off with an artfully oblique interpretation of John Coltrane’s “Coltrane Time,” led by Cyrille’s solo drum intro. The disc then features a sequence of sonically arresting originals, including Street’s luminous “Say...” and Frisell’s deeply felt “Kaddish” and “Song for Andrew,” with Frisell’s guitar alternately cutting and billowing, the edge evoking some of his most illustrious past ECM performances. There are three atmospheric compositions by the band together – including dynamic soundscape “Dazzling (Perchordally Yours),” which highlights Cyrille’s distinctive sense of percussive drama.

Cyrille appeared on classic ECM and Watt LPs by the likes of Marion Brown, Carla Bley and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, but The Declaration of Musical Independence puts a deserved spotlight on this master of rhythm, a disciple of drum idol Philly Joe Jones and an inspiration to subsequent generations of jazz drummers. Summing up Cyrille’s art, Modern Drummer magazine has said: “Jazz historians would point out that his free and abstract playing with Cecil Taylor shattered conventions of timekeeping and helped redefine the rhythms of modern jazz. But the diverse body of work that he’s amassed over his long career – which he continues to build upon with each new and intriguing project – proves that he’s always been most concerned with dealing with the now.”

The sessions for his ECM album – held in Brooklyn, NY, where Cyrille was born in 1939 – “were a whole lot of fun,” the drummer says. Although the studio was the first place where the quartet came together as a unit, Cyrille had links to each of the musicians. He previously recorded with Frisell in a session led by Danish guitarist Jakob Bro, and the drummer has recorded three albums with Street and another Dane, pianist Søren Kjaergaard. With Teitelbaum – who was born in the same year as Cyrille – the drummer has had an association in concert and on record since the 1970s, both in Europe and the U.S.

“It’s always exciting to collaborate with world-class musicians and that’s what these guys are,” Cyrille says. “Take the first track on the album, ‘Coltrane Time’ – that’s a rhythm that I learned from Rashied Ali, who learned it from Coltrane himself, of course. I love that rhythm, and I’m doing my own variation on it. The guys in this quartet were listening to me play it, and then as we started playing together, the four of us were really listening to each other – and enjoying it. That’s the way you make music.”

About what inspired him to put together this lineup, Cyrille adds: “I dig Bill’s lyricism, his rhythmic sense and that signature sound of his – it’s as unique as his signature. Ben has got great ears, and I like his sound. Besides that, he’s just so congenial to be around – he loves playing music. And not too many people play the synthesizer like Richard. We’ve always been able to complement each other, finding a place in each other’s sound. I wanted this album to be a true quartet project, where each of us had a piece of the record, in every sense. I wanted everyone to contribute music, everyone to give of themselves.”

The New York Times has called Cyrille an “avant-garde eminence,” praising his bone-deep knowledge of not only vintage jazz drumming but also pan-African rhythms – and noting how his “watchful, flowing pulse” has influenced so many of today’s most artful drummers. Reflecting on the way he goes about making music, Cyrille says: “Having started as a boy playing in the drum-and-bugle corps and later learning from greats like Max Roach and Mary Lou Williams and Philly Joe and Cecil, I’ve come to realize that the more you know, the more you have to say. I’ve been all over the world by now and played with so many different people that I’ve learned more and more about how to communicate with the drums. And that’s what it is all about: communication. Communing on a spiritual level in the studio or on the bandstand, no matter where the musicians come from, what they look like, what language they speak. It’s all about what you hear and feel. For this new ECM album – with tunes like ‘Sanctuary,’ ‘Manfred,’ all of them – we were doing a whole lot of listening and feeling.”

Andrew Cyrille, drums, percussion
Bill Frisell, guitar
Ben Street, double bass
Richard Teitelbaum, synthesizer, piano

Andrew Cyrille
born in Brooklyn on November 10, 1939, studied with Philly Joe Jones in 1958 and then spent the first half of the 1960s studying in New York at Juilliard and the Hartnett School of Music. At the same time, he was performing with jazz artists ranging from Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins, and Illinois Jacquet to Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Walt Dickerson, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, among others. He also played with Nigerian drummer Babtunde Olatunji and worked with dancers. In 1964 he formed what would prove to be an eleven-year association with Cecil Taylor, a gig that brought him new acclaim and established him in the vanguard of jazz drumming.

Starting in 1969, Cyrille played in a number of percussion groups with notable drummers including Kenny Clarke, Milford Graves, Don Moye, Rashied Ali, Daniel Ponce, Michael Carvin, and Vladimir Tarasov. Cyrille formed his group Maono ("feelings") in 1975, with its fluid membership dictated by the forces his compositions called for rather than vice versa. Since leaving Taylor's group, he has also worked with such top-flight peers as David Murray, Muhal Richard Abrams, Mal Waldron, Horace Tapscott, James Newton, and Oliver Lake, was the drummer on Billy Bang's A Tribute to Stuff Smith (Soul Note 121216), notable for being the last studio session of Sun Ra.

An artist-in-residence and teacher at Antioch College (Yellow Springs, Ohio) from 1971 to 1973, Cyrille has also taught at the Graham Windham Home for Children in New York and is currently a faculty member at the New School for Social Research in New York City. His sterling work has earned him a number of grants and awards, mostly notably from Meet the Composer. Additionally, he has an educational video available from Alchemy Pictures.

"A great drummer; a fine writer; and a wonderful bandleader; you pass him by at your peril."--The Penguin Guide to Jazz

"A consummate modern drummer."--The New York Times

Booklet for The Declaration of Musical Independence