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Wednesday, May 1, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
KU musician sees fame and fortune in future
Michael Ray Tyler, Lawrence senior, hopes that his ability to play the drums, trumpet and flugelhorn will attract a recording contract
By Eric Nelson
Although it may be difficult to predict 10 years into the future, KU musician Michael Ray Tyler has few doubts.
Where Tyler wants to be is no secret. He now is trying to get a contract with a record company. The versatile Tyler plays instruments varying from the drums to any brass instrument.
"I'll be famous, rich, guaranteed." Tyler said confidently. "Well, I might not be rich, but I'll be where I want to be."
Kansan staff writer
With his band, the Soulmasters, Tyler also sings.
"He is the Soulmaster," Stidham, who plays the bass guitar, said. "The rest of us are just trying to be Soulmasters."
He said Tyler, who has gone into the studio and played every instrument for a recording, didn't really need anyone else to help him musically. Instead he shares his talents with his friends in the band.
Mark Stidham, Lawrence resident, plays with the Soulmasters and has known Tyler since the summer of 1983.
Musical beginnings
The Soulmasters play all kinds of music including jazz, ballads, salsa, reggae, funk, blues and fusion.
Growing up in an inner-city Dallas duplex, Tyler's childhood was surrounded by music.
"I started music at a young age." Tyler said. "My child life was filled with just music. I missed a whole lot of childhood."
Tyler can recall sitting in his father's bed with a guitar book at age 4 transposing the music so he could use it while playing the trumpet.
"Practicing is what we were all about," he said.
The family, including his mother on vocals and father on guitar, formed a band, "The Family St. John Band" . Each of the children learned to play two instruments. They played the trumpet and the drums.
"My old man was obsessed with having us be a good band," he said. "He wanted us to be another Jackson Five."
At age 9, Tyler would play gigs at local clubs until 2 a.m.
Stidham said this early experience allowed Tyler, 25, to play as if he was 40 years old.
"The guy has been performing live in front of people for 20 years," he said.
But growing up in what Tyler
refers to as the "John Tyler discipline arv school of music" was rough.
"He didn't tolerate mistakes, and if you did make a mistake you would suffer the consequences," he said.
But the long hours of practice had their paybacks.
He met big names in the business, and the professional horn group Tower of Power was so impressed with the 12-year old Tyler and his brother Derrick that they asked the head group. They did not accept the offer.
Tyler also recalled the $20 he earned for each performance.
"That was a lot of money for a kid," he said. "Even though we went through hard times, we were considered celebrities by our friends."
KU bound
After attending Arts Magnet High School in Dallas, where he was the first chair trumpet player from his freshman year to his senior year and consistently received honors such as being one of all region bands, Tyler came to KU!
Curt Bradshaw, Tyler's director in high school and early role model, had a tie with Ron McCurdy, then jazz at the University of Minnesota at the University of Minnesota at
McCurdy had recruited others from the Dallas school and said in a telephone interview that KU developed a good relationship with them.
McCurdy first heard Tyler play as
"That developed into a nice pipeline situation," he said.
a sophomore when he played at Lewis Hall during a tour by the Dallas school.
be seen at the Jazzhaus and Bottleneck in Lawrence. They also play at the Cajun Seafood Cafe and Starker's, both in Kansas City.
Impressed with the young Tyler, McCurdy mentioned to him the possibility of attending KU.
Although he has no instrument of preference, Tyler has had the chance to play instruments other than the trumpet or flugelhorn. Currently he is playing the drums with some of the instruments, an opportunity he is enjoying.
Tyler never forgot the offer and, despite the interest of other schools, he decided to attend KU.
"I went through hell just trying to pass math," Tyler said. "I studied math more than I practiced my horn."
After arriving in 1983 and struggling with KU's math requirement, he received his degree last fall.
But other things came with more difficulty to Tyler.
Tyler experienced the good and bad while at KU
"It allows you to be dynamic and really creative." he said.
Conquering math
At KU he was first influenced by great jazz musicians such as Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis. Not until 1957 did he sense a new chance to appreciate their greatness.
He has been successful musically and has done studio work in Los Angeles. The Soulmasters often can
'I started music at a young age. My child life was filled with just music.'
Michael Ray Tyler
McCurdy said Tyler had some problems adjusting to KU culturally, much like those McCurdy exper-iential teachers became a graduate student at KU.
Tyler did not have a strenu-
academic background or study skills,
McCurdy said. And KU is not an easy
course, even for some of the best students.
But he was relieved to survive the course.
Unlike other students, Tyler said he could do things in music other students could not do, such as compose a score. He did not understand the importance of math for his musical career.
A matter of time
Tyrler said he was now working hard in the studio and saving his money to make a good demo track that he may travel to promote himself.
McCurdy said the market for musicians was tight right now. Being discovered is just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
"It doesn't work on the phone and through the mail more," he said. "Guys don't get back to you. Persistence is the name of the game."
“It's luck,” he said. “There's no question with him having the ability.”
Tyler said that he would not get discovered by sitting in Lawrence.
"I'll sit here and not all my life if stay. I need to go where the music is." Tyler said, quoting an expression which was commonly used by Dick Clark.
Looking back, he is unsure whether KU was the right choice for his musical growth. Although he have improved in most of them, he have not met new goals on sight.
But according to his peers, including Stidham, it is only a matter of time before Tyler is discovered.
Studham said that when Tyler's current studio project was complete, he would really have something to show to the record labels.
"The time is growing very near when someone is going to see him and give him a record contract," Stidham said.
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