The best of Tyrone Jefferson

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The best of Tyrone Jefferson

By Glenn Burkins – December 26, 2010

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Looking for something different to mark the start of Kwanzaa?

Tyrone Jefferson and his big band, A Sign Of The Times, will perform a 90-minute concert Sunday evening at the McGlohon Theatre at Spirit Square.

Jefferson, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Charlotte, spent 27 years as music director/trombonist for James Brown. About 11 years ago, he formed his own group, mixing genres such as jazz, Latin and gospel music with African, tap and liturgical dance.

We caught up with Jefferson by phone last week to talk about his band, the evolution of black music and the upcoming concert. Below is a Q&A based on that interview. Some answers were edited for brevity and clarity.

IF YOU WANT TO GO:
Date: Sunday, December 26, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Place: McGlohon Theatre (345 North College St.)
Cost: $20.10

Click here for ticket information.
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Q. Tell me about A Sign of the Times. How did the group get started.
I started it around 11 years ago. It started as a composer's orchestra. I was on the road at the time with James Brown and I just wanted to put together a group of talented composers and musicians who could play my favorite styles of music, which were R&B, bebop and the jazz genre, and classic Latin music. I think our first big gig was for the chancellor of N.C. A&T. I remember telling the person who called, “I really don’t do weddings, I really don’t do parties,” until she told me how much she was paying, and then I said, “Ok, we’ll make an exception,” and that’s how it got started. Then maybe five years ago I tried to get back to my core, which is to have a group of young, and maybe not so young, musicians and composers who understand the jazz genre, who understand the science of R&B and who can play gospel music and Latin music, and that’s difficult to find.

Q. How has the group changed over the years?
We’ve changed in terms of personnel. My standards have increased. When I first started the group, I was fresh from Brooklyn. I had what you might say was a bad form of communication. I used to curse a lot if people didn’t give me what I wanted, and they tolerated it. I still curse a lot (LOL) but my standards have increased. I decided to not let the band be defined by this area. Charlotte is not a real music center, if you compare it to New York or Los Angeles or Nashville. The group has changed because I decided to keep my standards high. I wanted to be able to take this group anywhere in the world and for people to say, “Now that is special.” So the personnel has changed. I started with all local cats, a few people from Columbia. I’ve lost most of them, simply because they weren’t able to jump up and meet the standards I established. It’s all about music as far as I’m concerned.

Q. Tell me about the performance at the Blumenthal. What can fans expect?
It’s going to be “the best of A Sign of the Times." Since I’m going into my 11th year, I have a lot of originals and can cover songs that our fans just love. I have taken what I consider to be some of the best out of those past 10 years and put them in a 90-minute program. We’re going to play the best of our 11 years. Sixty percent will be originals, and 11 percent will be covers. It should be a lot of fun.

Q. Who’s your typical concert-goer? It’s been said that African Americans often don’t support jazz and blues as much as some other groups.
I anticipated your question. Actually we do attract a large black audience. I’m trying to market my band as we present black history through music and dance. So I have one signature event we do every March, and I call it my black history month concert to kinda get people out of the mindset of waiting till February to think of black history. And I’m able to put, depending on my scene, between 400 and 500 butts in seats at West Charlotte High School. So in that sense, yes. But in general sense, when we play jazz we tried to get something started at the historic Excelsior Club. Very low attendance. I tried it for about a year and I had to stop. But whenever I go to Europe, people just eat this stuff up – jazz, blues, Reggae – they know a lot about African American music. If I were a Martian and just fell out of the sky and turned on the radio, I’d think all young black people were doing is having sex, being violent and having sex. No social commentary in the music. None. I’m trying to change that.

Q. So how are you changing that?
I’ll give you an example. I wrote a song maybe 15 years ago called “If We Must Die.” I really shouldn’t say I wrote it. I got permission from the estate of Claude McKay, a Harlem Renaissance poet, to put music to his poem. It just talks about, if you’re going to die, die for something. I try to relate it by extension to young black me. Don’t die doing something stupid, like selling drugs. Die for a cause, if you’re going to die. Die because you want to protest not being free in America. Die because back in the 50s you wanted to have the right to vote. Die for something special. That’s just one example. In my opinion there is not a market for socially conscious music in the black community. We used to have that back in the day in the ‘’50s and ‘’60s. Earth Wind & Fire was talking about “True Devotion,” “Keep Your Heads to the Sky,” Marvin Gay was talking about “What’s Going On,” Stevie Wonder was writing great songs. We used to have that, but we lost it.

Q. A lot of your music seems pretty heavy. What about those of us who aren’t students of music? Can we still enjoy your show?
You have to have zero knowledge of jazz to enjoy what I do. Unlike what some of my contemporaries do…for example, Jazz at Lincoln Center…I did that Maceo Parker maybe 10 or 11 months ago. It’s a listening room. It’s for jazz aficionados. But I say someone doesn’t have to know anything about the music. It’s like Duke Ellington said; if it has a groove, if it swings, it means something. And you’ll know that by your foot hitting the floor or your head bobbing. It requires no special theory, nothing. Either you like it or you don’t. For me, it has to groove; it has to swing.

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