Browse by Artist: GAYLE, CHARLES

Artist:	GAYLE, CHARLES
Title:	Solo in Japan
Label:	PSF (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PSF 094CD

"Modern sax legend and presumed bearer of the hallowed flame of Black American free jazz made his first ever trip to Japan in July of this year. He played 9 or so mostly solo (although he did play with Keiji Haino, and Japanese free-drum stalwart Sabu Toyozumi) gigs around the country to much applause from the cognoscenti. He seemed slightly bewildered by the whole experience. This is a document of one of those solo gigs. Five tracks, fifty-eight minutes. Four of the tracks feature Gayle on alto, the final one on piano - his original instrument before he took up the sax. Long-time fans of Gayle's sax pyrotechnics are going to be slightly surprised by these recordings -- that raging, barely in-control, going-through-the-wall sound has been tempered down, to produce four meditative spirituals that still burn inwardly with a smouldering intensity. Gayle never had the cleanest of tones, but the low-volume intimacy of these recordings allows you appreciate ever slur, slap and grunt -- like having him playing in your living-room. An examplary solo sax (plus some nice blurry piano) album by one of the contemporary masters." -- Alan Cummings

Artist:	GAYLE, CHARLES
Title:	Time Zones
Label:	TOMPKINS SQUARE
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	TSQ 2839CD

"Time Zones is Charles Gayle's first solo piano album of all original compositions. Although he is known primarily as a fiery tenor saxophonist with a sound that blends the spirituality of John Coltrane with the free expression of Albert Ayler, his first instrument was the piano. Since putting his long and storied past as a homeless New York street musician behind him, and recording for the first time in the late 1980s, he has steadily integrated piano into his performances, leading AllAboutJazz.com reviewer Dennis Hollingsworth to declare, 'Charles Gayle is without question one of the most intriguing figures in modern jazz today. Like with his saxophone playing, Gayle uses the entire range of the piano. His style is highly personal, yet firmly grounded in the playing of past masters like Art Tatum and Bud Powell.'"

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