Press Release
Source: BT
After 20 years of cultivating a reputation as one of New York’s most versatile, deft, and groundbreaking guitarists, Ben Tyree has made another daring move: stepping out as a singer-songwriter.
Tyree is most known for his instrumental sci-fi/jazz/funk trio, BT3; its escalated off-shoot project, Activator Trio; his remarkable altered tuning solo guitar work; as well as collaborations with fellow musical pioneers Vernon Reid, Burnt Sugar: The Arkestra Chamber, and DJ Logic. In his latest album, Lifelines (released February 16, 2020), Tyree reveals a rare dimension of himself that has been a long time in hiding.
Tyree began playing guitar at age 11, with the idea to accompany himself singing songs he was writing. By age 15, he was playing clubs with his rock band, Purple Legion, wielding raw emotion through a raspy voice beyond his years for what he describes as “therapeutic release.”
He continued to sing and play until he entered the music program at Howard University, where he found himself surrounded by highly trained and seasoned vocalists and decided to refine his focus to classical and jazz guitar. His award-winning hip-hop fusion group, Miscellaneous Flux, with spoken-word artist Rashad Dobbins, solidified Tyree as an innovator of his instrument as well as instrumental composition/arrangement.
Since then, Tyree has supported numerous, diverse, and extraordinary vocalists, including Corey Glover, Valerie June, Pyeng Threadgill, and Nona Hendryx, all the while, absorbing the influence of their mastery. Gradually, those influences accumulated until Tyree began hearing songs that would bring him back to his own voice.
Despite the newness of hearing him sing, those who know Tyree’s work will not be at all surprised by the well of emotive, and even spiritual, substance that gushes forth in this project, as it is the same essence that has been the groundwater of his peak instrumental moments.
He explains, “for years, I’ve tried to make playing more like singing. Now, I need to build singing in the same way I built my playing. People used to think of me as a singer, who didn’t play very well. Now, I’m known as a guitarist…and hopefully, one that also sings, every now & then.” Tyree sees this album less as about him singing and more about giving life to the songs. “I had these ideas that I wanted to get out into the world and in order to do that, I had to sing them. This required a lot of stretching, letting go, and giving myself permission to embrace what was coming through me, even if it wasn’t 100% executed.”
In addition to taking a leap of faith into vocal performance, in Lifelines, Tyree further demonstrates his affinity and proficiency for various genres of music. From his film commission works ranging from trip-hop to classical to experimental/avant-garde in Sonic Architectures, Vol. 1 (2007) to the incendiary jazz/funk/rock of BT3’s Re:Vision (2010) to the rich, introspective classical, pop, and folk-tinged weavings of his solo debut, Thoughtform Variations (2012), Tyree seems to have always enjoyed flirting with the marketing no-no of dramatic genre blurring.
“An idea may take the form of a folk ballad, a classical interlude, or a funky groove – it all comes from my journey through music and life. Different styles of music are vehicles for expression. All these styles are interrelated and embedded in our daily lives, whether we know it or not. I was never someone to hold one style over others. And I’ve always been interested in how they are interconnected, all facets of the great gift of music.”
As the songs of Lifelines dance through various styles and moods, with Tyree playing all parts, the lyrics delve into vulnerable territory for the previously nonverbal artist. The album’s opening track, “Latitudes,” blends a signature, guitar-heavy Tyree groove with stinging frustration about the way modern communication seems to be breaking down, causing people to become troublingly adversarial and tribalistic.
It’s not a political song, per se, but it’s the closest Tyree gets to it. “Circle Dream,” the album’s single, layers a feistily darting bassline and simple, circular guitar chords over polyrhythmic percussion samples. This song, which came to Tyree in it’s complete form in a dream, conveys his heart-wrenching concern for the state of the world, the power of ideas to shape reality, and the hopeful passing of the torch through the generations.
The oldest song, “Home,” written about nine years ago for Tyree’s wife, comes from a passionate, heartfelt place with all the nostalgic naivete of an ’80s-esque soft rock ballad. Inspired by a free-tempo Tom Waits ballad, Tyree wrote “Empire Love Song,” dedicated to another love. He takes his time to lay out the story of his relationship with NYC, how it’s changed in the 18 years he’s lived there, and romantically contextualizing his fear of artists and other folks not being able to stay there. While a few tracks lack discernible lyrics, all songs but one –a technically dazzling solo guitar tapestry, “Crystal Race”– include vocals as textural elements, when they are not directly front and center.
The creation of Lifelines spanned Tyree’s 30’s and now the project makes its way into the world on his 40th birthday. Tyree reflects, “as I looked towards turning 40, I realized that if milestones show us anything, it’s that time is finite and we have to not take our opportunities for granted. So….why not sit down and track the songs and make an album?”
This courageously exposing project gives Tyree’s audience a direct line to his feelings and dreams, what he calls “a report of how he experiences the world.” “It’s scary, but I think it has to be done. I believe it’s our job as artists to foster the creation of our deepest held values and ideas, and to share them with the world. Those ideas can then take on their own lives and do things that we can’t envision.”
Tyree’s vision for what lies ahead for this project remains somewhat unclear. He didn’t record with the intention of touring or even performing this material live. That may be a growing edge he will have to contend with, as the power of his voice is strong and the potency of his song-writing, even stronger. Whether he performs these songs, or other artists pick them up, this creative reinvention of Ben Tyree bears a refreshing gravity of purpose.
