Jazz Articles about Charles Gayle

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Charles Gayle: Ancient of Days

by Robert Spencer
May 1, 2000

Charles Gayle is the ultimate power tenor man. Most of his recordings, notably Repent, Consecration, and More Live at the Knitting Factory are vats of molten lead, music to go through the wall headfirst. He's a master of the altissimo register of the tenor, and of the screams and cries that, he says, come straight out of the church, of the sanctified ecstasy of Pentecostalism.

Anyone who dismisses him as a mere screamer, however, dismisses the abundant evidence on his ...

like 173

Charles Gayle 3: Abiding Variations

by Derek Taylor
September 1, 1999

Often denigrated and lauded in equal measure, Charles Gayle is perhaps the most iconoclastic jazz musician of the 90's. His penchant for fundamentalist-grounded religious diatribes and earlier bouts with homelessness frequently garner as much press as his monolithic musical prowess. He is a master at inciting both heated vocal reaction and awe-struck, gaping stares among his listeners. Thankfully on most of his recordings his controversial personal behaviors are submerged and his music is left to speak volumes for itself. Such ...