Aggressive and confrontational on tenor sax, Gayle lights up and Edwards and Turner let rip. His piano work hints at bebop and the blues, at Monk and Taylor, but overall he's wholly unpredictable - as likely to bash his whole arm on the keys and wail and he is to tinkle the keys with one finger. Over an hour of heat and sensitivity. £6.
Tracklisting
1. January (Gayle/Edwards/Turner) 34.14
2. Febuary (Gayle/Edwards/Turner) 7.04
3. March (Gayle/Edwards/Turner) 23.34
4. April (Gayle/Edwards/Turner) 11.34
5. May (Gayle/Edwards/Turner) 10.48
Recorded live at Cafe OTO on 26 May 2015 by James Dunn. Mixed by James Dunn. Mastered by Rupert Clervaux. Photograph Dawid Laskowski.
Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC
Charles Gayle blew down with hurricane force - the pun is too obvious - out of Buffalo. He drifted in and out of the first great free jazz scenes of the Sixties, playing with Pharoah, Archie Shepp, and other trailblazers. But he says now that his sound then was even more fiery and forceful than it is now, and he couldn't get a recording date. He drifted. He became homeless. He lived as a squatter in an abandoned Lower East Side tenement. He found Jesus. He played wherever he could; his steadiest gig was in the New York subways.
Eventually lightning struck. In the late Eighties Silkheart Records recorded three discs featuring Gayle's ecstatic, holy holy tenor. After that work, and recordings, came a bit more steadily. For the enigmatic German FMP label he recorded the all-time classic Touchin' on Trane with musicians as talented and passionate as he: bassist William Parker and drummer Rashied Ali. On some discs Gayle himself plays viola, bass clarinet, other oddments. But his chief double is piano, which he has played with increasing frequency and facility in recent years.
Popular perceptions may change, but a lot of people do not get familiar with the persononality of Charles Gayle because he speaks his mind in concert, and his views are not fashionable. He speaks about his Christian faith and about respect for life. He dresses up like a clown and acts the fool for the many who say he acts like a fool. His speech is as unpolished and sincere as his playing, and obviously springs from the same well.
There is no player on the scene today with the emotional wallop of Charles Gayle. His later discs - particularly Ancient of Days - manifest a mature improvisational talent that can stand with any saxophonists today. If you are interested in improvised music, you owe it to yourself to hear him.
John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.
"I think John Edwards is absolutely remarkable: there’s never been anything like him before, anywhere in jazz." - Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
Over decades Roger Turner has brought the renowned volcanic power and finely-honed precision of his drum work to ensembles that have forged substantial connections with musicians both sides of the Atlantic and more recently from Japan. In addition to pioneering an acoustic percussive language that can run in tandem with approaches to contemporary electronic instruments, he has worked extensively in the microscopic laboratory of the acoustic duo situation where he acquired a highly developed sense of detail and of dynamic control. One of that select group of world-class players who have collectively redefined the language of contemporary percussion, in Turner's hands minute inflections of tension can shape the group's musical direction and galvanise a new level of audience experience.
