Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Cyrille stands among the foremost free-jazz percussionists to surface during the 1960s. He first anchored ensembles directed by vibraphonist Walt Dickerson and, throughout the 1970s, pianist Cecil Taylor. Few drummers operating at the vanguard match his combination of grace, authority, relentless drive, and power shaped by a signature regard for restraint. His 1969 debut What About? and 1974’s Dialogue of the Drums demonstrate these attributes; across more than eighty albums he has documented them repeatedly. The connection with Italian imprints Soul Note and Black Saint commenced with 1979’s Nuba, recorded alongside Jeanne Lee and Jimmy Lyons. The 1982 trio date Life Rays united him once more with Dickerson and bassist Sirone. Two years afterward, Pieces of Time appeared, featuring Kenny Clarke, Graves, and Famoudou Don Moye. In 1993 he initiated a widely praised partnership with pianist Borah Bergman on The Human Factor. Throughout the twenty-first century Cyrille contributed to dozens of collective sessions, among them 2014’s Us Free: Fish Stories with Bill McHenry and Henry Grimes. On 2016’s The Declaration of Musical Independence he directed a quartet comprising Ben Street, Bill Frisell, and Richard Teitelbaum. The 2018 trio album Lebroba again featured Frisell together with Wadada Leo Smith. Cyrille’s quartet reconvened for 2021’s The News. 2 Blues for Cecil, issued in 2022, paired him with Enrico Rava and William Parker. The following year he delivered the unaccompanied Music Delivery/Percussion, then returned in 2024 with Breaking the Shell alongside Frisell and pianist Kit Downes.

Cyrille first took up drums at age eleven inside a drum-and-bugle corps. By fifteen he was performing in a trio that included guitarist Eric Gale. During his teenage years he briefly pursued chemistry studies before entering the Juilliard School of Music in 1958. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he accompanied such mainstream figures as Mary Lou Williams, Roland Hanna, Roland Kirk, Coleman Hawkins, and Junior Mance. He appeared on recordings with Hawkins and with tenor saxophonist Bill Barron for the Savoy label. In 1964 Cyrille replaced Sunny Murray in Cecil Taylor’s group, remaining until 1975 and participating in numerous landmark Taylor sessions. He also worked with Marion Brown, Grachan Moncur III, and Jimmy Giuffre, and served a residency at Antioch College; during this span he cut the solo percussion album What About? for BYG in 1969. Together with Rashied Ali and Milford Graves he mounted a series of mid-1970s concerts titled “Dialogue of the Drums.” From 1975 into the 1980s he led the ensemble Maono, whose members included tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, trumpeter Ted Daniel, pianist Sonelius Smith, and, at different times, bassists Lisle Atkinson and Nick DiGeronimo. He likewise belonged to the Group, which featured violinist Billy Bang, bassist Sirone, altoist Brown, and trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah. With Graves, Don Moye, and Kenny Clarke he recorded the all-percussion Pieces of Time for Soul Note in 1983. Beyond his own projects he appeared extensively as a sideman with John Carter, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Jimmy Lyons. He sustained a prominent presence into the late 1990s, issuing numerous dates for Black Saint/Soul Note, FMP, and DIW.

That pace of activity extended well into the new century. In 2000 he released the trio recording C/D/E with bassist Mark Dresser and saxophonist Marty Ehrlich. Duo concerts with Anthony Braxton in 2002 yielded the two-volume Duo Palindrome 2002 on Intact. Two years later he joined the Mary Lou Williams Collective—pianist Geri Allen, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Billy Hart—for Zodiac Suite: Revisited. The same year saw the duet Blue Flame with saxophonist Greg Osby and the trio Witch’s Scream with John Tchicai and Reggie Workman, both issued on TUM. Between 2008 and 2011 he produced two albums with pianist David Haney for CIMP and three trio sets with Danish pianist Søren Kjærgaard and bassist Ben Street for ILK. With Eric Revis and Kris Davis he recorded 2013’s City of Asylum for Clean Feed, later revisiting the Street-Kjærgaard configuration for Syvmileskridt. Cyrille’s musical range remained evident in the 2014 trio Us Free: Fish Stories with saxophonist Bill McHenry and bassist Henry Grimes on Fresh Sound New Talent, and in the following year’s double-length Song for a New Decade with saxophonist Mikko Innanen and bassist William Parker on TUM. In 2016 he introduced the Andrew Cyrille Quartet on ECM via The Declaration of Musical Independence, featuring Street, guitarist Bill Frisell, and pianist Richard Teitelbaum. He returned to CIMP in May 2018 for two further Haney projects: the duo Clandestine and the trio Conspiracy a Go Go that included bassist Dominic Duval. Later that year he issued his second ECM leader date, Lebroba, again with Frisell and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.

In 2020 Cyrille and Cécile McLorin Salvant became the jazz recipients of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Awards, the first occasion the foundation expanded its total from six to eight artists—the remaining recipients drawn from theater and dance. August 2021 brought his second ECM quartet release, The News. In January 2022 he joined trumpeter Enrico Rava and bassist William Parker for 2 Blues for Cecil on TUM. That year he also participated in the trio sessions Evocation with Teitelbaum and Elliott Sharp and performed with trumpeter Smith and drummer Qasim Naqvi on Two Centuries. The next year he released the solo Music Delivery/Percussion on Intakt Records and appeared in both ensemble and solo settings. In 2024 he collaborated with saxophonist Ivo Perelman and bassist Reggie Workman on Embracing the Unknown for Mahakala Music and rejoined Frisell, adding pianist/keyboardist Kit Downes, for Breaking the Shell on Red Hook Records.