Denis Charles
Encyclopedia
Biography
Charles was born in St. Croix, Virgin IslandsVirgin Islands
The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...
, and first played bongos
Bongo drum
Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
at age seven with local ensembles in the Virgin Islands. In 1945 he moved to New York, and gigged frequently around town. In 1954 he began working with Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
, and the pair collaborated through 1958. Following this he played with Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
, Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
, and Jimmy Giuffre
Jimmy Giuffre
James Peter Giuffre was an American jazz clarinet and saxophone player, composer and arranger. He is notable for his development of forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating forms of free improvisation.-Biography:Born in Dallas, Texas, of Italian ancestry,...
. He befriended Ed Blackwell
Ed Blackwell
Ed Blackwell was an American jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana, known for his extensive work with Ornette Coleman....
, and the two influenced each other.
He recorded with Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
on a calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
-tinged set, and then returned to time with Lacy, with whom he played until 1964. He worked with Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
and Don Cherry
Don Cherry (jazz)
Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...
in 1967 and then disappeared from the record until 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s he played regularly on the New York jazz scene with Frank Lowe
Frank Lowe
Frank Lowe was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.Born and brought up in Memphis, Tennessee, Lowe took up the tenor saxophone and then moved to San Francisco...
, David Murray
David Murray (jazz musician)
David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...
, Charles Tyler
Charles Tyler (musician)
Charles Lacy Tyler was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.Tyler was born in Cadiz, Kentucky and spent his childhood years in Indiana, New York City and Cleveland, Ohio...
, Billy Bang
Billy Bang
Billy Bang was an American free jazz violinist and composer.-Biography:...
, and others, and also played funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and traditional Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
music. He released three discs as a leader between 1989-1992, and died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1998.
Denis Charles died four days after a five-week Europetour with the Borgmann/Morris/Charles (BMC) Trio, with Wilber Morris
Wilber Morris
Wilber Morris was an American jazz double bass player and bandleader. He was the brother of the cornetist, composer, and conductor Butch Morris....
and Thomas Borgmann
Thomas Borgmann
Thomas Borgmann is a German musician and composer of Jazz, free Jazz and free improvisation.-Biography:...
. His last concert with this trio took place at the Berlin Willy-Brandt-Haus. With the BMC Trio he recorded in his last two years about four CDs. The fifth CD was released after he passed away: The Last Concert - Dankeschön, Silkheart Records
Silkheart Records
- External links :* *...
, 1999.
2001 Veronique N. Doumbe released a film documentary Denis A. Charles: An Interrupted Conversation about the life of Denis Alphonso Charles.
As leader
- Queen Mary (Silkheart RecordsSilkheart Records- External links :* *...
, 1989) - Captain of the Deep (Eremite Records, 1991)
- A Scream for Charles Tyler (Adda Records, 1992)
As siedeman
With Billy BangBilly Bang
Billy Bang was an American free jazz violinist and composer.-Biography:...
- Rainbow GladiatorRainbow GladiatorRainbow Gladiator is an album by the American jazz violinist Billy Bang recorded in 1981 and released on the Italian Soul Note label.-Reception:...
(Soul Note, 1981) - Valve No. 10Valve No. 10Valve No. 10 is an album by the American jazz violinist Billy Bang recorded in 1988 and released on the Italian Soul Note label.-Reception:...
(Soul Note, 1988)