In Conversation With Bandleader and Composer Tyrone Jefferson

Tyrone Jefferson has enjoyed playing with some of the greatest musicians on the planet, most notably the godfather of soul himself- James Brown!  Being a world trombonist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and more, he is a man of many talents that has had a career most would only dream of.  But he is far more than just his music.  He is an artist that is culturally aware of where he comes from and how it has shaped him, and he has chosen to give back to the world.  Establishing A Sign of the Times in 1999 as a Big Band composed of musicians of color, it has turned into an organization that shares the experience of blacks through music, spoken word, and more.  I’m happy to say his endeavors keep going strong to this day and I am glad to have had the opportunity to have chatted with him about his memories, his current projects, and more.  Please enjoy this interview and also check out the link to our podcast, which is a part of this interview.

You have had a very very successful career thus far and have worked with so many amazing artists in many genres from jazz to R & B, hip hop, gospel, and more!  Can you tell us a little about your beginnings in studying music and how have you come to be so proficient in so many styles?  Do you have a preference for one among the many?

My music “studies” started at home. My mother was an elementary school teacher and the pianist for her church. My father was the shipping clerk for General Electric’s X-ray department in Charlotte (NC) by day and at night a bartender, entertainer (drummer, tap dancer, and comedian).
So, there was a lot of music in my home growing up as a child – especially on the occasional weekend pinochle parties hosted by my parents for their various “social club” friends. Recorded music in our home included a lot of Ray Charles and the Raylettes and anything from Motown. I started piano lessons in the 6th grade but convinced my mother to save her $5 per lesson after I shared that my piano teacher, Mr. Walker, kept me on the same song (America The Beautiful) for several weeks. I could not play the octaves in my left hand.

I honestly do not consider myself to be proficient in many styles! However, I was exposed to music all around me.  I try to listen more and talk less! There was R&B music on WGIV-AM every day and one could hear LIVE gospel groups every Sunday morning before going to church. I loved listening to the radio!

I had two great music teachers – Mr. Johnny Holloway (orchestra teacher) at Northwest Junior High School and Mr. Leroy Augustus Paige Sr. (band teacher) at Northwest Junior High and West Charlotte Senior High School. Between these two gentlemen, I learned basic music theory, how to play the trombone (via private lessons with Mr. Paige).  Several of my junior high friends and I decided to form our own band, in the 8th grade called the Typs. The instrumentation was a tuba, bass drum player, a snare drum player, guitar, trumpet, sax, and trombone. Our first gig was at Oaklawn Elementary school. I’ve forgotten the songs we played, but this was my first exposure to improvisation.

Do you have a preference for one among the many?

I prefer listening to Straight Ahead Jazz. The following three are my favorite jazz artists: Keith Jarrett, Ahmad Jamal, and Stanley Turrentine. I also love classical music – esp. anything by Johann Sebastian Bach.♫

There have been many great musicians that have been born in the south that have gone on to be recognized as great musicians with a deep sense of soul such as John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Ray Charles, and the list can go on and on.  Being from the south, what is it about the environment down there that has been so nurturing to musicians and artists in general?

I was born in Harlem Hospital New York City on July 5^th, 1953. We had a lot of family members living in Harlem – my paternal grandmother, many aunts, uncles, and cousins. So, my mother had a lot of support. However, I don’t think one’s birthplace has much to do with their path in life.

I think one’s path is more influenced by 1) their life experiences from childhood forward and 2) being in the right place at the right time!

My environment in Charlotte was shaped by my immediate family – my father (Hubert Jefferson) and most importantly my mother (Ms. Rosa Lee Jefferson).

My father’s day job was as a stockroom clerk for General Electric’s X-Ray Department. His after-hours work ranged from being an entertainer (mainly as a drummer & percussionist), dance instructor (mainly tap dance), and a Boy Scout Master.

While serving as a U.S. Navy steward during World War II, he was also a boxer. My mother was an elementary school teacher and the pianist for the family church – First Mount Calvary Baptist Church. So, my sister (Cynthia) and I grew up listening to all styles of music. After coming home from work each day, my mother would take a nap. One day, I asked her a question before she took her nap:

I knocked on her bedroom door saying “Mommy?…”

She replied: “I’m trying to take a nap!”

I said: “but Mommy, I want to know if I can have something to eat!

She again said “No!” Then replied: “… and Stop calling me Mommy!!!”

So I replied: “Mrs. Jefferson, can I have something to eat”

I obviously was really starting to irritate her because my last request was to almost shout my request and call her by her first name, saying: “ROSA, Can I have something to eat!!!”

I do not remember what her final response was, but it was forceful enough to scare me – so much so that I knew to NEVER Ever challenge my mother again!!!

I shared this short “conversation” with my mother to provide a sense of what was “in my ground” as a Black child with strongly opinionated parents in the mid to late 1950s, where:

• Black children did not talk back to their parents. If one was so BOLD to try talking back – you got “a spanking”,
• If a neighbor saw my sister or I doing something wrong, they would tell my parents which resulting in some type of disciplinary action – i.e. can’t play with the neighborhood kids, no TV, going to bed early, or “a spanking”,
• We were a real neighborhood – Preachers and Teachers lived next door to Janitors and Secretaries. We all looked out for each other.
• Black folks had their own thriving businesses – especially in the West Charlotte neighborhood where I grew and as well as in Charlotte’s Brooklyn & Second Ward neighborhood.

Finally, my sister and I attended great elementary and secondary schools with all Black school teachers. I felt that the teachers really cared for each student!!! In 1959, I attended 1^st grade at Lincoln Heights Elementary School where most of the teachers knew my mother – which was an incentive for me to do my very best in school. During the summer of 1965 before entering the 7^th grade, my music teacher, Mr. Leroy Augustus Paige Sr., taught me music theory and gave me weekly trombone lessons.

So, my answer to your question about what made my environment or “our ground” so nurturing is:

• A loving musical family,
• Neighbors that really cared for the young folks in the community and
• Excellent teachers and creative people in my community.

You have a strong desire to educate audiences about the artistic influence of the African Diaspora, which is great!  How have you gone about this, and what are some of the results you have noticed from your work over the years?  And what more can be done in the arts, in general, to help promote more of this awareness? 

I’d say that I have a strong desire to share (not educate) the history of Black folks that you probably did not learn in school. Plus, I’ve been blessed to be in the right place at the right time! During a 3-year Army tour of duty in Germany, I met and performed often with ex-patriot and bebop saxophonist Pony Poindexter at the “Down By the Riverside” club in Frankfurt Germany. One Sunday afternoon, he called “Stella By Starlight” in Bb. When he asked me if I knew the song, I lied and said ‘yes’ – as Bb was a good key for me.

Well, the first 2 chords of the song are Emin7(b5) to A7(b9) – which is NOT in Bb!

I took a horrible solo!!!.

When the band finished playing the song, Pony whispered in my ear “If you don’t know the changes, Don’t Fuck with it!”  I’ve never forgotten that moment and always share this story with musicians – when necessary. (I was in the right place at the right time!)

Near the end of my military “tour of duty” in Germany, I booked a 5-day American Express Tour to Mombasa Kenya – where I spent most of my time with a family in the “Bush”. Also learned a few words of Kiswahili.♫ (I was in the right place at the right time!)

After completing my “tour of duty” in Germany, I returned to Fort Gordon in Augusta GA. One of the first things I did was to find the local jazz joint – which was Damiens’ on Wrightsboro Road. This was also the place where the percussionist for the James Brown Band, Mr. Johnny Griggs, performed. Mr. Griggs was from Newark NJ and was a great jazz musician.

Late one night Mr. Griggs called me around 3 AM inviting me to do a gig in Canada with James Brown. My wife packed an overnight bag and drove me to the James Brown bus. En route to Canada, we did an outdoor gig in Rock Hill SC. James Brown and his music director, Charles Sherrell, heard me warming up and offered me a job with the Band – a relationship that lasted (on and off) for the next 35 years. (I was in the right place at the right time!)

While attending Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early 1980s, I decided to enroll in a Black Music History course at neighboring Harvard University. The textbook used for the course was “Blues People” by Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones). This book resonated with me and for the first time provided a historical connection to my African ancestors that I always felt but could never explain. I continue to share concepts from Bro. Baraka’s book whenever given the chance to do so.

Also at Berklee College of Music, my “senior” project was a multi-media production with singers, local African dancers from the Boston community, and a Big Band. I called the production “Asante Sana” – a Kiswahili phrase for Thank You Very Much!

While I was at least 7 years older than most of the Berklee students, I later discovered that my production resonated with the younger Black students. One of the students in attendance worked for the Minister of Culture in Guadeloupe, French West Indies. She was instrumental in me becoming one of 6 composers around the world to compose “A Hymn For World Peace”.

(I was in the right place at the right time!)

Living in New York City from 1983 to 1984 was a wonderful yet scary experience. I worked with jazz arranger/trombonist Slide Hampton, composer/saxophonist Frank Foster and the Ray Abrams Big Band. But I could not make enough money to stay in the City. (I was in the right place at the WRONG time!)  As a veteran in the music business can you share with us some of your observations on what has changed on both the educational and performance fronts? Up to the end of the 1980s, the music industry (in my opinion) was mostly an “in-person” / “over the phone” kind of industry. With the growing popularity of the Internet in the 1990s, many of the person-to-person connections were replaced with emails. I’m not making a judgment – as I now prefer email.

I’ve also been very concerned for several decades about the quality of music education in secondary schools and many universities. For example, the student placement process at Berklee College of Music in the early 1980s consisted of having students listen to a jazz recording and identifying the instrumentation. I assumed the “listen” exercise would be increasingly difficult. After all (I thought to myself), this is Berklee College of Music! I was very disappointed when the listening exercise was no more challenging than my 7-grade Band class exam.

In the mid-1980s, I became interested in sequencers and various MIDI devices but used them to hear my arrangements before having musicians play the parts. While many great musicians like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea were doing amazing things with this technology, I should have but never envisioned the technology opening the floodgates to a proliferation of 1-man / 1-woman “bands”.Overall, I’m very concerned that we (the general public) are becoming more and more focused more on “the Me” rather than “the We” in all of us!

You established the ‘A Sign of the Times” and are the executive director of it.  Can you tell our readers a little about it, what the mission of your organization is, and how people can help support it?

A Sign Of The Times started in 1999 as a Big Band of color – playing everything from jazz, R&B, and Latin. In 2006, we incorporated A Sign Of The Times of the Carolinas as a nonprofit organization to focus on our educational component: To share the pre-1619 history of folks from the African Diaspora thru music, dance, and the spoken word.

Before the end of the calendar year 2020, we will kick-off a multi-year capital campaign to raise money to build (or modify an existing structure) the Black Research & Performing Arts Center (BRePAC) in Charlotte’s historic Westside Black community. We envision the BRePAC being a state-of-the-arts multi-functional facility that will:

• Be a repository for Black history books, music manuscripts, photographs, LP recordings, and videos accessible to students, teachers, and researchers of Black history and culture. This would include subscriptions to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and the New York City Library’s Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture,
• Provide educational programs on African and African American History prior to 1619,
• House a 210-seat multimedia performance venue for live music and dance performances, lectures, video presentations with an adjoining audio/ video recording studio to record the performances as well as the stories of Westside residents – young and old,
• Provide administrative offices for ‘A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas’ and “artists in residence” and
• Include a Bookstore, Gift Shop, and Café.

BRePAC’s Vision is to transform lives as it celebrates and values the accomplishments and gifts of the African Diaspora.  BRePAC’s Mission is to provide opportunities for study, performance, celebration, and conversation that considers Black History and Culture from Ancient Africa to our current communities, building capacity and confidence for our shared futures.

To donate, please visit: https://www.asignofthetimes.org/donate/

Your plans for the future may have been altered due to the current world situation like so many artists, but can you share with us some of the plans you had before Covid-19 and how are you adapting to the current climate? 

Before COVID-19, our calendar was full of gigs. However, 98% of the gigs were canceled or rescheduled. Our new “normal” is determining how to stay true to our mission in a virtual world.

While I’m still not a fan nor frequent user of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et. al.; they are necessary to remain relevant. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? I’m living proof that you can!

Asante Sana (Thank you very much)

Images by Ron Ross, Courtesy of Tyrone Jefferson

Podcast

In the following podcast, we asked Tyrone Jefferson what was it like to work with the Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown?  How long did you get to work with him and what were some of the lessons you learned from performing with him? Aside from the great James Brown, Tyronne shared his experience working with other great artists, including the bands he has led over the years. I’d like to thank Tyrone for his willingness to do this interview with us at Occhi Magazine, and we hope to sit down with him again soon.

 

 

 

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