CHARLES GAYLE QUARTET – Vol 1 - Translations (1994)

Label: Silkheart – SHCD 134
Format: CD, Album; Country: Sweden - Released: 1994
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded at the House of Music, Studio A, West Orange; N.J. on January 21 and 22, 1993.
Artwork [Cover Art] – Ulf Rollof
Design, Layout – Jörgen Renhorn
Edited By – Allan Tucker
Executive Producer – Keith Knox
Photography By [Booklet Photographs] – Ruth Davis
Photography By [Kylrock] – Lars Gustafsson
Recorded By – Nicholas Prout
Recorded By [Assisted By], Edited By [Assisted By] – Nelson Ayres

 Charles Gayle

William Parker

Five years after his recording debut, tenor saxophonist Charles Gayle sounds as intense and passionate as ever on this set of five lengthy sound explorations. In addition to tenor, Gayle also plays a bit of bass clarinet and viola. Both William Parker and Vattel Cherry are on basses (with Parker also heard on cello and violin), while drummer Michael Wimberly keeps up with the other players. At least volume-wise, the strings add a little variety to this quite free-form and explorative music. While not for everyone, those listeners who enjoy the ESP free jazz jams of the 1960s and the more violent sets of John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Albert Ayler will find this music quite stimulating.

_ Review by SCOTT YANOW



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CHARLES GAYLE QUARTET – Vol 2 - Raining Fire (1994)

Label: Silkheart – SHCD 137
Format: CD, Album; Country: Sweden - Released: 1994
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded at the House of Music, Studio A, West Orange; N.J. on January 21 and 22, 1993.
Artwork [Cover Art] – Ulf Rollof
Design, Layout – Jörgen Renhorn
Edited By – Allan Tucker
Executive Producer – Keith Knox
Photography By [Booklet Photographs] – Ruth Davis
Photography By [Kylrock] – Lars Gustafsson
Recorded By – Nicholas Prout
Recorded By [Assisted By], Edited By [Assisted By] – Nelson Ayres

The companion CD to Vol. 1: Translations, this explosive set has tenor saxophonist Charles Gayle also heard a bit on bass clarinet (for "Blood's Finality") and viola, while joined by bassists William Parker (also playing cello and violin) and Vattel Cherry plus drummer Michael Wimberly.

 Vattel Cherry

 Michael Wimberly

"The all-out assaults of his earlier sessions gives way here to a more open rhythmic sensibility. Gayle's playing takes on an emotionally incantatory urgency here over the shifting layers of dual basses and Wimberly's tumbling, flexible attack. Raining Fire is the more fiery of the two CDs, from the opening blasting hurricane charge through In Christ with Gayle's most incendiary playing of the two. Translations (Silkheart 134) and Raining Fire are welcome additions to Gayle's growing discography, documenting Gayle's uncompromising intensity and continued growth."

_ By MICHAEL ROSENSTEIN, Cadence, November 1994


These sessions were considered so successful that this quartet became Gayle's regular group for a time. The music is unremittingly intense with Gayle screaming a lot in spots, although the sections with strings are at a quieter volume. Charles Gayle's mostly free-form music is certainly not for everyone, but fans of his passionate explorations will want all of his chance-taking and very heartfelt efforts.



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