Charles Tyler

Biography
Articles

Charles Tyler was a standout baritone sax player who excelled in avant garde and free improvisation. He is best known for his work with tenor man Albert Ayler. Tyler started out on piano, and then went from alto sax to baritone. He had known Ayler from his teen age years, and finally got to join up with him in New York in 1965, where he was featured on the “Bells,” and “Spirits Rejoice,” sessions.

He also left quite a recorded legacy on his own as leader notably “Eastern Man Alone,’ and “Second Album,” both for the ESP label in 1967. His “Saga of the Outlaws” a live set for Nessa done in 1976, is still considered a brilliant set of improvisation.

Tyler went on to record his “Definite, Vol. I,” and “Definite” for Storyville in 1981 which are also highly regarded. He was on violinist Billy Bang’s “Rainbow Gladiator,” a recording on Black Saint done before he moved permanently to France. His final recording was “Mid Western Drifter” done in France for the Bleuregard label in 1992, shortly before his death the same year. Source: James Nadal

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

Read "Albert Ayler 1965: Spirits Rejoice & Bells Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

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.

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Album Review

Charles Tyler: Charles Tyler Ensemble

Read "Charles Tyler Ensemble" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

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 ...

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Album Review

Charles Tyler Ensemble: Charles Tyler Ensemble

Read "Charles Tyler Ensemble" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

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 ...

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Extended Analysis

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 ...