Charles Gayle

Charles Gayle made his first significant impact on the free jazz scene with a series of critically acclaimed New York performances at the Knitting Factory in the mid- to late '80s. The tenor saxophonist's hyper-kinetic free expressionism draws on stylistic devices pioneered in the '60s by the late free jazz icon Albert Ayler. Like Ayler, Gayle employs a huge tone which, more often than not, he splits into its individual harmonic components. Timbral distortion is a key aspect of Gayle's work. His improvisations feature long, vibrating, free-gospel melodies, full of huge intervallic leaps, screaming multiphonics, and a density of line that evidences a remarkable dexterity in all registers of his horn (especially the altissimo). Gayle is also capable of great lyricism, imbued with the same bracing intensity present in his high-energy work. Gayle began playing music at the age of nine. Except for a couple of years of piano lessons as a child, he was self-taught. Piano was his first and only instrument until he picked up a saxophone when he was 19. He listened to jazz as a teenager in the '50s. Gayle was intrigued by bebop; hearing Charlie Parker was a crucial experience. Gayle attempted to learn conventional harmony by analyzing sheet music and working things out on a piano. African-American church services had an profound effect on his music. Gayle moved from Buffalo to New York City in the '60s, where he became involved in the city's nascent free jazz movement. Gayle reportedly taught a jazz course at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1969, where one of his students was the saxophonist Jay Beckenstein. There is at least one account of Gayle playing with drummer Rashied Ali's group around 1973, but little else is known about his activities during this period...