Biography Charles Tyler

Charles Lacy Tyler (July 20, 1941 – June 27, 1992) was an American jazz saxophonist. He focused on baritone & alto saxophone and also played clarinet. He released a string of albums on the ESPDisk and Sackville labels in the 1970s and 1980s, all of them in the free jazz idiom. His discography includes work with Albert Ayler, David Murray, Billy Bang and many others.

Tyler was born in Cadiz, Kentucky, United States, and spent his childhood years in Indianapolis. He played piano as a child and clarinet at the age of seven, before switching to alto saxophone in his early teens, and finally baritone saxophone. During the summers, he visited Chicago, Illinois, New York City and Cleveland, Ohio, where he met the young tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler at age 14. After serving in the army from 1957–1959, Tyler relocated to Cleveland in 1960 and began playing with Ayler, commuting between New York and Cleveland. During that period played with Ornette Coleman and Sunny Murray.

In 1965, Tyler recorded Bells and Spirits Rejoice with Ayler's group. He recorded his first album as leader the following year for ESP-Disk. He returned to Indianapolis to study with David Baker at Indiana University between 1967 and 1968, recording a second album for ESP, Eastern Man Alone. In 1968, he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley to study and teach. In Los Angeles, he worked with Arthur Blythe, Bobby Bradford, and David Murray.

He moved back to New York in 1974, leading his own groups with Blythe, trumpeter Earl Cross, drummer Steve Reid and others, recording the album Voyage from Jericho on Tyler's own Akba label. In 1975, Tyler enrolled at Columbia University and made an extensive tour of Scandinavia, releasing his second Akba album Live in Europe. In 1976, he performed a piece titled "Saga of the Outlaws" at Sam Rivers's Studio Rivbea; a recording was released by Nessa Records two years later on an album of the same name. During that period he played as a sideman or co-leader with Steve Reid, Cecil Taylor and Billy Bang.

In 1982, during a European tour with Sun Ra's Orchestra, he relocated to Stockholm, Denmark, and in 1985 he moved to France, recording with other expatriates like Khan Jamal in Copenhagen and Steve Lacy in Paris.

Charles Tyler died in Toulon, France, of heart failure in June 1992.

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