Charles Gayle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Gayle (2007)
Charles Gayle at the piano, Paris, 1994

Charles Gayle (born February 28, 1939 in Buffalo , New York ) is an American tenor saxophonist, pianist and bass clarinetist of free jazz .

Live and act

Gayle took piano lessons as a child and later taught himself to play the saxophone. In the late 1950s he began playing with local and traveling musicians in his hometown. On occasional trips to New York City, he jammed with Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders . The saxophonist has been homeless since moving to New York City (1972) and made his way as a street musician with uncompromisingly ecstatic-free play until the mid-1980s . Peter Kowald heard him on a corner in 1984, arranged for him to get his first engagement and an appearance at the "Sound Unity Festival", where Gayle also appeared in Ebba Jahn's film "Rising Tones Cross" . Then Kowald organized a tour with him through European jazz clubs . This led to the collaboration with Sven-Åke Johansson and bassist Torsten Müller .

After his return to the United States, Gayle was able to record a first album with Sirone and John Tchicai in 1988 ( Always Born ); In 1991 he was invited to the Total Music Meeting . Only the subsequent doctorate by the Knitting Factory and the album Repent (1992) published there led to the breakthrough. This was followed by albums such as Touchin 'on Trane with Rashied Ali and William Parker , and Kingdom Come (1994) with Sunny Murray and Parker, and others as a solo pianist. Gayle also made recordings with Milford Graves , Andrew Cyrille , Reggie Workman , Billy Bang and Cecil Taylor and paid tribute to his first sponsor at the Frankfurt Memorial Concert for Peter Kowald. According to the “Reclam Jazzlexikon”, however, he has been performing primarily as a comedian since 1999 and orienting his playing more towards blues and gospel .

In 2006 a collection of his poems was published under the title The Final Nite & Other Poems: Complete Notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook 1987-2006 .

Discography

Lexigraphic entries

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gayle, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American tenor saxophonist, pianist and bass clarinetist of free jazz
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Buffalo (New York)