Alvin Owen "Red" Tyler (December 5, 1925 – April 3, 1998)
was an American
R&B and
neo-bop jazz
Neo-bop (also called neotraditionalist) refers to a style of jazz that gained popularity in the 1980s among musicians who found greater aesthetic affinity for acoustically based, swinging, melodic forms of jazz than for free jazz and jazz fusion t ...
saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...
, composer and arranger, regarded as "one of the most important figures in New Orleans R&B".
[
]
Biography
Born and raised in , Tyler was known as "Red" because of his light tanned skin.[ Dik de Heer, "Alvin 'Red' Tyler", ''Black Cat Rockabilly'', 2012]
Retrieved 28 October 2015 He grew up listening to the city's marching bands. He began playing saxophone after he joined the US Army in 1945, and after his discharge joined the Grunewald School of Music. In 1949 he joined Dave Bartholomew
David Louis Bartholomew (December 24, 1918 – June 23, 2019) was an American musician, bandleader, composer, arranger, and record producer. He was prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century. Originally ...
’s R&B band, whose other members included Ernest McLean
Ernest J. McLean (March 23, 1925 – February 24, 2012) was an American rhythm and blues and jazz guitarist.
Career
Born in New Orleans, McLean was the son of musician Richard McLean, who played banjo in a government music project band, a ...
, Frank Fields Frank Nomer Fields (May 2, 1914 – September 18, 2005) was an American double bass player who was involved in many R&B, rock and roll and jazz recordings made in New Orleans.
He was born in Plaquemine, Louisiana. In the 1930s, he played wi ...
, and Earl Palmer
Earl Cyril Palmer (October 25, 1924 – September 19, 2008) was an American drummer. Considered one of the inventors of rock and roll, he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Palmer was one of the most prolific studio musicians of a ...
. He also played jazz in club jam sessions, and regarded himself as primarily a jazz rather than an R&B musician.[
He made his recording debut on ]Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...
's first session at Cosimo Matassa
Cosimo Vincent Matassa (April 13, 1926 – September 11, 2014) was an American recording engineer and studio owner, responsible for many R&B and early rock and roll recordings.
Life and career
Matassa was born in New Orleans in 1926.Komorowsk ...
's studio, when he recorded “ The Fat Man”. He went on to play on sessions for Little Richard, Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price (March 9, 1933May 3, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter, record executive and bandleader, known as "Mr. Personality", after his 1959 million-selling hit, "Personality". His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", was a hit for Spe ...
, Aaron Neville
Aaron Joseph Neville (born January 24, 1941) is a retired American R&B and soul singer. He has had four platinum albums and four Top 10 hits in the United States, including three that reached number one on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. ...
, Lee Dorsey
Irving Lee Dorsey (December 24, 1924 – December 1, 1986) was an American pop and R&B singer during the 1960s. His biggest hits were "Ya Ya" (1961) and " Working in the Coal Mine" (1966). Much of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint, with ...
, and numerous other rhythm and blues artists, often helping with the songs' arrangement
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
s. According to Mac Rebennack
Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B.
Active as a session musician from t ...
, "Red Tyler was the true leader of the tudioband but he never got full credit. He would sit down and organise almost every song. He would organise the changes, teach the guitar player to change, have the piano run it down for everybody to learn...". John Broven, ''Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans'', Pelican Publishing, 1988, p.91
/ref> In 1955, he began working for Johnny Vincent
John Vincent Imbragulio (October 3, 1927 – February 4, 2000), known as Johnny Vincent, was an American record producer for Art Rupe at Specialty Records. He founded Ace Records in 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi, 165 miles away from New Orlea ...
's Ace Records as an A&R man, and oversaw sessions by Huey "Piano" Smith
Huey Pierce Smith, known as Huey "Piano" Smith (born January 26, 1934) is an American rhythm-and-blues pianist whose sound was influential in the development of rock and roll.
His piano playing incorporated the boogie-woogie styles of Pete John ...
, Frankie Ford
Frankie Ford (August 4, 1939 – September 28, 2015) was an American rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer, best known for his 1959 hit "Sea Cruise".
Biography
He was born in Gretna, Louisiana, as Vincent Francis Guzzo, across the Mississippi ...
and others. He also recorded an album, ''Rockin' and Rollin, credited to "Alvin 'Red' Tyler and the Gyros", with a band that included Fields, Allen Toussaint
Allen Richard Toussaint (; January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, descri ...
, and James Booker
James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Booker's unique style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. Musician Dr. J ...
.[
He left Ace in 1961, and helped ]Harold Battiste
Harold Raymond Battiste Jr. (October 28, 1931 – June 19, 2015) was an American music composer, arranger, performer, and teacher. A native of, and later community leader in, New Orleans, he is best known for his work as an arranger on record ...
found his AFO (All For One) record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
, which had a hit with Barbara George
Barbara George (16 August 1942 – 10 August 2006) was an American R&B singer and songwriter.
Biography
Born Barbara Ann Smith at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, she was raised in the 9th ward New Orleans, and began si ...
's "I Know" in 1962. In December 1964, Little Richard, with Jimi Hendrix, recorded his tune, "Cross Over". Tyler then moved to California where he recorded with Sam Cooke, Larry Williams
Larry Williams (born Lawrence Eugene Williams, a.k.a. Lawrence Edward Williams; May 10, 1935 – January 7, 1980) was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams ...
and others, before returning to New Orleans in the mid-1960s. He co-owned Parlo records AKA Olrap Publishing, Inc., which found success in 1967 with Aaron Neville's " Tell It Like It Is".[
From the mid-1960s Tyler worked as a liquor salesman. He also began leading his own jazz band, the Gentlemen Of Jazz, in clubs and hotel residencies in New Orleans, and played with other jazz musicians including Ellis Marsalis.][Rose Witmer, Biography, ''AllMusic.com'']
Retrieved 28 October 2015 While the baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...
had been his primary instrument during his years as a studio musician, his jazz playing gradually came to rely much more on tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...
. In the mid-1980s he recorded two jazz albums, ''Graciously'' and ''Heritage'', with vocals by Johnny Adams
Laten John Adams Jr. (January 5, 1932 – September 14, 1998), was an American blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary" for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto. His biggest ...
and Germaine Bazzle, for Rounder Records
Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...
.[ In 1994, he recorded the album ''The Ultimate Session'' with Toussaint, Earl Palmer, Mac Rebennack, and other New Orleans musicians.][
Tyler died at age 72 in New Orleans. After his death, the New Orleans Jazz Festival organised a concert in his honor, featuring many leading New Orleans musicians.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyler, Alvin
1925 births
1998 deaths
Jazz musicians from New Orleans
American jazz saxophonists
American male saxophonists
Jazz-blues saxophonists
Ace Records (United States) artists
20th-century American saxophonists
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians