Andrew Cyrille Profiled

Source: The New York Times.

Andrew Cyrille opens one of his two new albums, “The Declaration of Musical Independence,” with a syncopated figure on a snare drum, as taut and riveting as a military cadence. Then he adds cymbals and kick drum, giving the phrase a sinuous curve just as the rest of the band enters. What they’re playing is “Coltrane Time,” an obscure piece by John Coltrane, and Mr. Cyrille shows the way forward with a regal, flowing self-possession.

He has been working this way more or less since the 1960s, reshaping jazz’s rhythmic syntax while engaging with its lineage. A tireless workhorse in the avant-garde, Mr. Cyrille, 76, deserves substantial credit for helping to unlock a freer pulse and purpose in the music, slipping away from a metronomic framework while preserving a rigorous attention to form.