Two om Charl Gayle ~ The Free Jazz Collective

Contents:

• CHARL GAYLE
• GAYLE'S BOUTIQUE
• GAYLE
• THE COMPLETE DISGRAPHY OF CHARL GAYLE
• CHARL GAYLE: TOUCH' ON TRANE

CHARL GAYLE

Charl Gayle has received a lot of love on FJB, and for good reason. From tly humble begngs, Charl Gayle has bee a legend.

GAYLE'S BOUTIQUE

That romantic tge only holds, however, if you foc on the unpromisg qut for self-realizatn through mic and strip of the hardships endured a and a half of homelsns, whereby Gayle survived by bkg a fashn more likely to repel than attract the average passer-by. This, of urse, was how Gayle refed his sound, which li somewhere between eicism of Charlie Parker, the spirualy of Albert Ayler and late-stage John Coltrane, and the off-the-walls adventurism of Arthur Doyle. Gayle’s spiratn also emanat que unapologetilly om his relig fah (listen to the brief thank you at the end of Seasons Changg for a brief and clive claratn) and his oft-noted ristance to mercial nformy, as well as his experience, all those s ago, on the streets of New York.

As Gayle himself explas, “I tried to py the sounds I heard: the traffic, the fire eng, the police rs, even babi cryg. Now, some three s after his first releas on Swen’s Silkheart label, Gayle is an octogenarian and he is still blowg his uniquely lored fire, as the two rerdgs om 2019 attt. Charl Gayle, Gvanni Barcella, and Manolo Cabras - The Alto Ssns (el Negoco, 2019) ****.

The Alto Ssns is a stud rerdg wh two micians Gayle first played wh 2011: Gvanni Barcella (bass) and Manolo Cabras (dms). From there, a wild ri endg abptly wh energy and some of Gayle’s (? The send track, “Charl’s Speech” is a ballad, softer and blier than Gayle ually lays.

GAYLE

In a way that seems only Gayle n mter, however, behd this aggrsive, spired abstractn ris and unrlyg pensivens and medatn. It begs wh Barcella’s squealg ar bass, soon followed by tentatively mmagg dms and a surprisgly rtraed Gayle on piano. ” Here, the group renven their origal formulatn as Gayle returns to the alto and his tnted, ntorted phrasgs overlayg a propulsive, eply synergistic rhythm sectn.

THE COMPLETE DISGRAPHY OF CHARL GAYLE

All all, a well-balanced rerdg of the enzied, clunky ee jazz that has granted Gayle renown.

Charl Gayle, John Edwards, Mark Sanrs - Seasons Changg (Otoroku, 2019) ****½.

Seasons Changg is pure Gayle fire-sptg ridg atop nsely latticed, knotted grov of John Edwards (bass) and Mark Sanrs (dms).

CHARL GAYLE: TOUCH' ON TRANE

As much as those latter releas offer some ntext particularly for Gayle’s approach, however, this November 15, 2017 ncert at London’s now legendary Café Oto documents a very different outg.

Seasons Changg tak me back to my first few sps of my first Gayle album, Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe. Clearly, Gayle has still got .

And, clearly, Edwards and Sanrs have got their own thg gog on that tertw so impecbly wh Gayle’s. Six-mut to the first piece on this two-disc live date, Sanrs and Gayle step asi and let Edwards show his angular chops. Soon, Sanrs reptur the grove and Gayle squeaks his way back to the ay, fallg to a sharp, spired melody.

Intersperse adjectiv such as “soulful, ” “squonky, ” “paed, ” and “beatific” here and there, and the scriptn above scrib the entirety of the two sets, whether Gayle is on sax or piano. This is classic ee jazz chiseled for the prent by s ( Gayle’s se, eight s) of mil history, exploratn, and awarens.

Charl Gayle ma his first signifint impact on the ee jazz scene wh a seri of crilly acclaimed New York performanc at the Kntg Factory the mid- to late '80s. Like Ayler, Gayle employs a huge tone which, more often than not, he spls to s dividual harmonic ponents.

Timbral distortn is a key aspect of Gayle's work. Gayle is also pable of great lyricism, imbued wh the same bracg tensy prent his high-energy work.

Gayle began playg mic at the age of ne. Gayle was trigued by bebop; hearg Charlie Parker was a ccial experience. Gayle attempted to learn nventnal harmony by analyzg sheet mic and workg thgs out on a piano.

Gayle moved om Buffalo to New York Cy the '60s, where he beme volved the cy's nascent ee jazz movement. Gayle reportedly tght a jazz urse at the State Universy of New York at Buffalo 1969, where one of his stunts was the saxophonist Jay Beckenste.

There is at least one acunt of Gayle playg wh dmmer Rashied Ali's group around 1973, but ltle else is known about his activi durg this perd (he is not cled to go to tails when asked by terviewers about his past).

Gayle took to playg his horn on the streets and the subways, relyg on donatns om passers-by for e. Gayle lived a maly prer existence for the next twenty years. Still, Gayle scuffled, though he was eventually able to rent a small apartment on New York's Lower East Si.