Christopher Gaddy - what's his story?

[king ubu]

... if there is one?

I've owned a CD of Joseph Jarman's "Song For" for many years now, it took me a while to "get" it ... I'm still rather the Roscoe Mitchell type when it comes to the AEC, but Jarman is growing more and more ... and "Song For" has been considered a favorite for quite a while now, a marvellous album, as I'm sure most folks here know!

Anyway, there's a wonderful piano player on it by name of Christopher Gaddy. He seems to be virtually unknown, J.B. Figi doesn't say much about him in his liner notes ("Pianist Christopher Gaddy has constellations at his fingertips. He also plays miscellaneous percussion on this album." - that's it, whatever the first phrase is supposed to mean .... that he's got many abilities as a piano player maybe?).

A quick google search of what's been said about him on this board doesn't bring up more than a few mentions when there were discussion of artists with the smallest recorded legacy, artists you wish had recorded more, or similar threads.

So, what's the story of Christopher Gaddy? Larry, Chuck, anyone?

A search for Charles Clark, the just-as-wonderful bass player on "Song For" brought this post to light that I didn't find in my previous searches:

I can offer some info about the Art Ensemble name. As stated earlier, Roscoe started calling his group the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble in late 1966. The first evidence is a concert flyer I have from a 12/3/66 concert at the Harper Theater. This group was the quartet with Phillip Wilson. Phillip left the group, we recorded without a drummer in '67 (under Lester's name - for contractual reasons) and in early '68 with Bob Crowder playing drums. This second record was billed as the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble.

By October of '68 my job took me out of Chicago and I lost day-to-day contact with the guys. Sometime in very late '68 or early '69 Roscoe asked Jarman to join the group. Two members of Joseph's quartet had died (Christopher Gaddy and Charles Clark), and he was "adrift".

Roscoe had already made the RM Art Ensemble a cooperative group, and when Joseph came aboard he dropped his name. This group had a fine following in Chicago, but they wanted to move on to bigger and better things - they had already tried NY but didn't think the fit was right. They left for Europe in the late spring of 1969, at the suggestion of Steve McCall. Steve was in Paris playing with Steve Lacy and Marion Brown.

(click on the snapback icon in the quote to be lead to the original thread - this one:)

[Larry Kart]

Don't recall what caused Gaddy's death, but I think it was some debilitating condition/disease. Figi's "constellations at his fingertips" means something like, I would say, Gaddy's playing had a great and highly individual coloristic and rhythmic range. Clark, IIRC, died of a stroke on the way to or from a lesson with his teacher, CSO principal bassist Joseph Guastafeste.

[king ubu]

Thanks, Larry. Is there anything else you can share about the playing of Gaddy (and of Charles) that you gained from in-person experience?

Very sad, such early deaths. A stroke, at what age? Clarke sure has an amazing presence on "Song For" and can virtually be felt and heard at each and every moment!

[clifford_thornton]

From the cover of A Jackson in your House:

Charles Clark (March 11, 1945-April 15, 1969)

[clifford_thornton]

I thought Clark had a heart condition or something but that's probably incorrect.

[Chuck Nessa]

I only heard Christopher Gaddy a few times and only recorded him once. He was a friendly spirit and played the piano exactly as I would have (if I could play) to accompany Joseph Jarman. The only comparison for me would be the early Corea ECM solos.

[johnlitweiler]

Gaddy was a young man playing with two younger men, Clark and Barker, in veteran Jarman's quartet. They first played together in public in 1966 and were together for only a few times in the course of, I'm sure, less than a year - Gaddy's death was the group's end. He was so distinctive, such a colorful pianist, as in Jarman's "Non-Cognitive Aspects" (one of the very best jazz-poetry recordings, BTW) - yet not just ornamental or "meditative". His colors fit and enhanced Jarman's alto-sax virtuosity, his active lines and harmonies had their own weight. Definitely original. How many other pianists back then excaped the influences of Cecil Taylor or Bill Evans? I believe Larry is right about the debilitating condition - Gaddy did not have self-destructive habits. IIRC Clark was 21 when Song For was recorded and Barker was younger.

Charles Clark was a kind of outside Mingus with a big tone, force - presence, as King Ubu would say. He was a favorite of Jarman and Abrams and played often with Braxton. He also was the bassist in the first Roscoe Mitchell concert I ever heard (also 1966). A Braxton group with Leroy Jenkins, Clark, Barker, and usually Maurice McIntyre played often in clubs and concerts. Clark did less jazz work after he began studying with Guastafeste and playing in the Civic Orchestra. Different stories I heard back then about Clark's death included stroke and heart attack. The Chicago Symphony then established the Charles Clark scholarship for talented young African-American musicians to study with CSO members.

[Chuck Nessa]

what he said.

[king ubu]

Many thanks for those reports and remembrances! Fascinating to gain some more knowledge around those great albums!

Oh how I'd wish there were more recordings from that early stage of AACM music!