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Eddie Gale

EDDIE GALE was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941 where he recalls listening to gospel and blues with his family at an early age. As he remembers, "This was the beginning of my music career. I often participated in neighborhood singing groups where I developed a fondness for vocal ensembles." GALE joined the marching band of the local scouting troop. There he learned to play the horn and marched in parades for many years. His early jazz education included trumpet lessons from the great KENNY DORHAM and others as well as serious woodshedding. There were many after-hour jam sessions where he had the opportunity to sit in with such musicians as Cedar Walton, Wilbur Ware, Art Taylor, Art Blakely, Max Roach, Jackie Maclean, Illinois Jacquet, Sonny Stitt, Cecil Payne, Matthew G, Scoby Stroman, Wynton Kelly, Randy Weston, Willie Jones And Pianist Errol Clark (who knew GALE from the BOY SCOUTS marching band). "I remember spending many hours with my friends who were into jazz music and we would listen to all the recordings that we could get our hands on. This is where I fell in love with the different trumpet styles such as Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Clifford Brown, Kenny Dorham, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Art Farmer, Webster Young AND Booker Little, and developed a fondness for Harry James, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Blue Mitchell, Freddie Hubbard, Chet Baker AND Bill Hardman. In the circle of musicians who I developed around, it was important to know how to jam on the tunes of MONK, MILES, CHARLIE PARKER, and SONNY ROLLINS, on and on, in order to be able to ‘sit in’. Then came the ‘new thing’ By John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy, Charlie Mingus, Archie Shepp, and Jackie Maclean. Max Roach turned me on to a gig which featured voices from my GHETTO MUSIC album. When I thanked him, he told me that I was one of the first musicians to ever thank him. One evening, SONNY ROLLINS and I stood looking out his window overlooking the city discussing music and the idea of playing together."

In the early ‘60s, GALE was introduced to SUN RA by DRUMMER SCOBY STROMAN. EDDIE found SUN RA very intriguing. He spent many hours exposed to SUN RA’s philosophy about music and life. As EDDIE explains, "Playing with SUN RA is a great experience—from the known to the unknown. You play ideas on your instrument that you never imagine. His music provoked me to explore the use of trills, for instance, and the placement of whole tones and then a space chord—ideas you do not find in the exercise books. Traveling with SUN RA is also interesting. He had me play the role of straw boss one time and it required me to pay one of the musicians to not play on a particular job. SUN RA, the master psychologist."

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9
Album Review

Sun Ra: Lanquidity (2 x CD Edition)

Read "Lanquidity (2 x CD Edition)" reviewed by Chris May


When it comes to Sun Ra, the elephant in the room--or perhaps the intergalactic space frigate orbiting your sound system--is how many musicians in the band were bombed out on acid during a typical recording session? By all accounts, Ra ran a tight spaceship and drugs, mind expanding or numbing, were strictly off limits. Then again, Frank Zappa was a similarly sober micro-manager, but bandmembers' memoirs have revealed what anyone with ears has suspected for decades: namely that weed and ...

13
Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Mixed to Unit Structures Revisited

Read "Mixed to Unit Structures Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


This story has been revisited before, in the context of an Albert Ayler review, but good stories bear repeating, particularly when they are instructive ones. So here it is again... During a May 2021 interview with All About Jazz, the reed player Shabaka Hutchings was asked to name six albums which had made a more than usually deep impression on him. One of those Hutchings chose was Cecil Taylor's Silent Tongues: Live At Montreux '74 (Freedom, 1975). “This ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Mixed to Unit Structures Revisited

Read "Mixed to Unit Structures Revisited" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


La pubblicazione di Mixed To Unit Structures, nella meritevole collana Revisited Series della Ezz-thetics, sotto-etichetta della svizzera Hat Hut, riunisce due date di registrazione importanti nella vicenda di Cecil Taylor, distribuite tra l'ottobre 1961 e il maggio 1966. La prima, composta dai tre brani “Pots," “Bulbs" e “Mixed," era stata pubblicata dall'etichetta Impulse! nel disco Into the Hot, a nome di Gil Evans. I successivi quattro pezzi costituivano il disco Unit Structures, siglato originariamente da Blue Note. ...

3
Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Mixed To Unit Structures Revisited

Read "Mixed To Unit Structures Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto


A listener could make it their life's work to absorb and appreciate the music the music of Cecil Taylor. One could possibly approach it as a scholar and musician through notation and transcription—not the recommended approach. Such a task would be similar to the process of systematizing a DNA sequence. Taylor's music, and pardon this analogy, might be best grasped as one might attend to the oxymoronic genre noise music. If you are still reading, allow an explanation. ...

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Radio & Podcasts

A tribute to Eddie Gale plus a mix of old and new releases

Read "A tribute to Eddie Gale plus a mix of old and new releases" reviewed by Bob Osborne


On this show a tribute to trumpeter, Sun Ra alum, and musical educator Eddie Gale who recently passed away. Also featured, the second album in the Catalytic Artist Album fundraising series from the Erotic Winds trio Joe McPhee with Joe Giardullo and John Howard. As well as some other new releases and archive cuts there is further exploration of the recordings of Italian Saxophonist Felice Clemente. Playlist Steve Cardenas “Lost and Found" from Blue Has a Range (Sunnyside) ...

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Radio & Podcasts

50th Anniversary Blue Notes for May & More

Read "50th Anniversary Blue Notes for May & More" reviewed by Marc Cohn


May 1969 saw Blue Note recording some 'Brazilian' jazz, soulful tunes and two 'spiritual' jazz sessions--a very broad palette. Some are fantastic and some mundane. Listen and see what you think. Also a few other 50th anniversary bits, Blue Note #9 and a tad more. Enjoy the show.

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Live Review

First Northern California Jazz Musicians Healthcare Benefit Concert

Read "First Northern California Jazz Musicians Healthcare Benefit Concert" reviewed by Bill Leikam


First Northern California Healthcare Benefit ConcertVelma's Jazz and Blues ClubSaf Francisco, CaliforniaApril 23, 2009

On April 23rd, 2009 at Velma's Jazz and Blues Club, in San Francisco, California jazz trumpeter Eddie Gale launched the First Northern California charity concert to support healthcare for jazz musicians through the California Jazz Foundation. The Foundation's mission statement reads, “The California Jazz Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization formed to provide assistance to musicians and to others in need ...

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3

Event

Bay Area Jazz Aficionados Host August 8, Online Musical Tribute For Eddie Gale

Source: Joann Stevens

Bay Area Jazz Aficionados Host August 8, Online Musical Tribute Memorializing Eddie Gale, San Jose’s Ambassador of Jazz More than 20 Bay area jazz aficionados will present a livestream musical tribute, Saturday, August 8 from 2-4 PM (PST), 5-7 PM (EST), to memorialize their friend and mentor jazz trumpeter Eddie Gale. The Tribute sanctioned by Gale’s family to extend love and peace to friends, fans, and the communities he served, is being co-ordinated by jazz pianist Valerie Mih ...

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Music Industry

Eddie Gale, San Jose’s Ambassador Of Jazz And A Noted Jazz Educator, Succumbs To Cancer At Age 78

Eddie Gale, San Jose’s Ambassador Of Jazz And A Noted Jazz Educator, Succumbs To Cancer At Age 78

Source: Joann Stevens

Eddie Gale, the pioneering Brooklyn-born jazz trumpeter who began his career as a sideman with legendary jazz artists such as Sun Ra, Larry Young, and Cecil Taylor before forging his path as a band leader on Blue Note Records and a performer and music educator on the East and West Coasts, passed away Friday, July 10, 2020. Gale was 78. He’d resided in San Jose since 1972. In 1974, San Jose Mayor Norman Y. Mineta named him “San Jose’s Ambassador ...

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Recording

Mushroom with Eddie Gale - Joint Happening

Mushroom with Eddie Gale - Joint Happening

Source: Calabro Music

"Mushroom tossed the analog weirdness of Fxa, and the jagged experimentalism of Can into a dark, smoking concoction alongside acid-fried Funkadelic, Jack Johnson-style Miles Davis and even some groove-addled Medeski, Martin & Wood. The result was some of the most instantly accessible outrock around, exploratory, up and infectious. It's rich and trippy party music for ass and head." - Pitchfork.com

“The vibe is so 1969-inner peace-astrological-cosmic-love-futurist-spiritual that when I was done listening, I just lay back knowing everything was everything ...

196

Performance / Tour

Trumpeter Eddie Gale & trombonist Dick Griffin bring avant-garde sounds to New England

Trumpeter Eddie Gale & trombonist Dick Griffin bring avant-garde sounds to New England

Source: Avant Coast

Eddie Gale & Dick Griffin with Equal Time - Two Shows in Maine!

Monday, October 2nd - 7:30pm Railroad Square Cinema 17 Railroad Square Waterville, ME $10 admission at door

Tuesday, October 3rd - 7:30pm Studio AC at the Wentworth-Dennett School 78 Government Street Kittery, ME 03904 $10 admission at door

For more information: www.avantcoast.com [email protected] ...

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Festival

Jazz Trumpeter Eddie Gale Homecoming Appearance At The Brooklyn Jazz Festival April 12, 2003

Jazz Trumpeter Eddie Gale Homecoming Appearance At The Brooklyn Jazz Festival April 12, 2003

Source: All About Jazz

Brooklyn Born Jazz Trumpeter Eddie Gale To Make Homecoming Appearance At The Brooklyn Jazz Festival April 12, 2003

New York, NY-Trumpeter, composer, educator Eddie Gale returns to New York City and his hometown of Brooklyn, NY with a very special 'homecoming' appearance at the Brooklyn Jazz Festival, Saturday, April 12th, 2003 (two sets at 9:00 and 10:15). Eddie's appearance at the Brooklyn Jazz Festival will take place at Sista's Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue (off Jefferson Avenue) 718-398-1766.

Born in 1941 ...

David Leikam
multi-instrumentalist

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Lanquidity (2 x CD...

Strut Records
2022

buy

Mixed to Unit...

Ezz-thetics
2021

buy

Inner Peace Suite

Repertoire Records
2013

buy

Joint Happening

Hyena Records
2007

buy

Afro Fire

Repertoire Records
2004

buy

Ghetto Music

Water Music
2004

buy

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