# charles gayle ![[267px-charlesgayle.jpg|300]] gayle performing in 2007 background information born: february 28 1939 buffalo new york u.s. origin: new york city new york u.s. died: september 7 2023 (aged 84) new york city u.s. genres: jazz occupation(s): musician educator instrument(s): tenor saxophone alto saxophone piano bass clarinet acoustic bass years active: 1960s-2023 labels: silkheart black saint knitting factory fmp clean feed tompkins square ![[charlesgayledsc0488.jpg|300]] charles gayle george wein's carefusion jazz festival 55 - newport ri charles gayle (february 28 1939 - september 7 2023) was an american free jazz musician. initially known as a saxophonist who came to prominence in the 1990s after decades of obscurity gayle also performed as pianist bass clarinetist bassist and percussionist charles gayle was born on february 28 1939 in buffalo new york. gayle was often reluctant to talk about himself during interview so many details of ir life are uncertain. ey briefly taught music at the university at buffalo before relocating to new york city during the early 1970s gayle was homeless for approximately twenty years playing saxophone on street corners and subway platforms around new york city. ey had described making a conscious decision to become homeless: "i had to shit my history my life everything had to stop right there and if you live through this good and if you don't you don't. i can't do the rent the odd jobs the little rooms scratchin' and all that no!" at the same time this allowed gayle to devote most of ir time to playing music although ey often earned less than us$3 a day from busking > first of all i played to play because i need to play. second of all the money a dollar meant a lot to me at that time. playing out there is obviously different than playing on a stage but that is so rich out there. it's such a whole 'nother world of playin'. i mean i used to walk from times square for instance all the way to wall street playin'. i could walk back and never stop playing. i didn't think about it as anything other than what it was. these were people and i wasn't overly concerned with what they thought. i was playing i had to play. also i had to eat some way and i'm not the type to put my hand out. i'd stand there playing with a coffee cup sometime and people would put money in my coffee and you don't get that on the stage. that's beautiful when gayle first set out on the streets ey did not imagine ey would remain homeless as long as ey did although ey estimated that this period lasted closer to fifteen years than twenty in 1988 ey gained fame through a trio of albums recorded in one week and released by swedish label silkheart records. since then ey had become a major figure in free jazz recording for labels including black saint knitting factory records fmp and clean feed. ey has also taught music at bennington college gayle's music is spiritual intended to express ir religious beliefs and heavily inspired by the old and new testaments. gayle explained "i want the people to enjoy the music and if it in anyway can suggest something about the lord for ir benefit that would be first in my mind." ey had explicitly dedicated several albums to god. ir childhood was influenced by religion and ir musical roots trace to black gospel music. ey had performed and recorded with cecil taylor william parker and rashied ali. perhaps gayle's most celebrated work is the album touchin' on trane (fmp) with parker and ali which received the "crown" accolade from the penguin guide to jazz though ey established ir reputation primarily as a tenor saxophonist ey had increasingly turned to other instruments notably the piano (ir original instrument) violin bass clarinet and alto saxophone. more controversially ey had sometimes included lengthy spoken-word addresses to the audience in ir concerts touching on ir political and religious beliefs: "i understand that when you start speaking about faith or religion they want you to keep it in a box but i'm not going to do that. not because i'm taking advantage of being a musician i'm the same everywhere and people have to understand that." gayle sometimes performed as a mime "streets the clown." "streets means to me first a freedom from charles. i'm not good at being the center of attention…. it's a liberation from charles even though it's me on the stage it's a different person" in 2001 gayle recorded an album entitled jazz solo piano. it consisted mostly of straightforward jazz standards and was a response to critics who charge that free jazz musicians cannot play bebop. in 2006 gayle followed up with a second album of solo piano this time featuring original material entitled time zones gayle appears in the 1985 jazz documentary "rising tones cross" directed by ebba jahn. ey is seen playing with rashied ali marilyn crispell and many others and is interviewed charles gayle died in brooklyn new york on september 7 2023 at the age of 84. ey had suffered from complications of alzheimer's disease # # as leader or co-leader **+** always born (silkheart 1988) **+** homeless (silkheart 1989) **+** spirits before (silkheart 1988) **+** repent (knitting factory 1992) **+** more live at the knitting factory (knitting factory 1993) **+** touchin' on trane (fmp 1993) **+** consecration (black saint 1993) **+** raining fire (silkheart 1993) **+** translations (silkheart 1993) **+** live at disobey (blast first 1994) **+** kingdom come (knitting factory 1994) **+** unto i am (victo 1995) **+** testaments (knitting factory 1995) **+** delivered (2.13.61 1997) **+** berlin movement from future years (fmp 1997) **+** solo in japan (psf 1997) **+** daily bread (black saint 1998) **+** ancient of days (knitting factory 1999) **+** abiding variations (fmp 1999) **+** jazz solo piano (knitting factory 2001) **+** precious soul (fmp 2001) **+** no bills (long arms 2005) **+** shout! (clean feed 2005) **+** time zones (tompkins square 2006) **+** live at glenn miller cafe (ayler 2006) **+** consider the lilies (clean feed 2006) **+** blue shadows (silkheart 2007) **+** forgiveness (not two 2008) **+** live at crescendo (ayler 2008) with by any means (gayle william parker and rashied ali) **+** our souls: live in vilnius (nobusiness 2010) **+** streets (northern spy 2012) **+** look up (esp disk 2012) **+** christ everlasting (for tune 2015) **+** solar system (for tune 2017) **+** seasons changing (otoroku 2019) **+** the alto sessions (el negocito 2019) **+** sunny murray illuminators (audible hiss 1996) **+** william parker requiem (splasc(h) 2006) **+** william parker. for those who are still (aum fidelity 2015) charles gayle on disc three **+** henry rollins everything (2.13.61 1996) **+** henry rollins weighting (2.13.61 2003) **+** sirone and billy bang configuration (silkheart 2005) **+** cecil taylor always a pleasure (fmp 1996) // republic of bob