Eddie Gale (1941-2020)

[clifford_thornton]

Have been given reports from Nathaniel Mackey, Peter Kuhn, and other collaborators that the great trumpeter Eddie Gale died last night at the age of 78.

Eddie Gale Stevens, Jr., known professionally as Eddie Gale, worked and recorded with Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Prince Lasha, and his own groups, including the powerful late '60s combo Ghetto Music (which recorded two wonderful Blue Note albums). He was born (August 15, 1941) and raised in Brooklyn, and relocated to San Jose, CA in 1972. Active in churches and schools with a spiritual-educational and political-community bent, Gale's work has transcended both commercial and vanguard realms. He seemed like a very interesting person.

RIP Eddie Gale, and thanks.

[Guy Berger]

RIP

[John L]

RIP to a truly fine artist.  

[JSngry]

RIP.

[Justin V]

I've only heard a live album he did with William Parker, which is pretty out.  I was a little surprised when I realized that he had recorded for Blue Note.  I'd like to hear those albums. 

Thank you for the music, Mr. Gale, and rest in peace.

[JSngry]

 

[clifford_thornton]

Really wish I'd made the pilgrimage, even over the phone, to interview him. I bet he had some stories!

[JSngry]

Those two Blue Notes, I was excited as fuck when I found them in used stores, for, like REAL cheap in the late 70s. Now I guess they're like cratediggers gold, or used to be, do people still dig crates?

[Chuck Nessa]

I got the 2 lps when issued and bought the cds, but I never really connected with the music. I respect the effort.

[felser]

2 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

I got the 2 lps when issued and bought the cds, but I never really connected with the music. I respect the effort.

Same here, but I am overdue for a re-listen.

[danasgoodstuff]

3 hours ago, Justin V said:

I've only heard a live album he did with William Parker, which is pretty out.  I was a little surprised when I realized that he had recorded for Blue Note.  I'd like to hear those albums. 

Thank you for the music, Mr. Gale, and rest in peace.

The're certainly not typical Blue Note, whatever that means to you.  'Bout the only thing Blue Note-ish about them was getting Elvin to play on one of them.  but they are fascinating and very much their own thing.  I hope he was happy with what he was able to do, pity BN didn't do more with him.

[soulpope]

R.I.P ....

[jazzbo]

So many leaving us. RIP Eddie. I really like the Blue Notes. And I have a few other appearances. 

[mjazzg]

Another loss, such a shame. The BNs definitely work for me. I first really noticed him on 'Unit Structures'

[clifford_thornton]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Those two Blue Notes, I was excited as fuck when I found them in used stores, for, like REAL cheap in the late 70s. Now I guess they're like cratediggers gold, or used to be, do people still dig crates?

newer music: https://larshidde.bandcamp.com/album/ancestors-wailing

[clifford_thornton]

 

[JSngry]

8 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

 

I do have that one.Also have his Mapleshade record, A Minute With Miles.

[sidewinder]

Sorry to hear this, RIP. I really like his two Blue Note albums.

[Teasing the Korean]

When I was 16, for Christmas, I asked for "Unit Structures."  On spinning the LP on Christmas Day, my parents thought I'd lost my mind.

RIP. 

[ep1str0phy]

Seizing permission to speak freely here -

Eddie was and is very important to me. We had a complicated working relationship insofar as he was tremendously exacting, and often in ways that could be frustrating of off-putting, but I never - for a second - doubted the integrity of his artistry or his realness as a person. I owe multitudes to him for taking me under his wing at a very early stage of my career. He was warm, generous, and infectiously excitable, and he give me the invaluable experience of working with an actual, dyed-in-the-wool free jazz auteur.

I think that only those among us who've had the opportunity to work with the old school free guys will understand what I'm saying here - and I say this not by way of self-aggrandizing or humble-bragging, but in order to document a phenomenon that is so specific and so quickly passing from the land of the living. It's difficult to define, but it's analogous to playing changes you're really comfortable with in company that is surpassingly facile at them - when you're thrown in the pool with people who are master improvisers in accordance with some metric, you just hang on. When you're able to ride the wave, as I've been fortunate enough to on occasion, you feel these flashes of profundity that remind you why you fell in love with this music in the first place. At its best, playing with Eddie was like that.

It's a tragedy to me that this lesson cannot be communicated in a classroom or through a book, because the number of people who can teach it numbers so very few. Eddie was an iron man - like he was in crazy good shape some 5-10 years ago, back when I was working with him - so his passing is a reminder that you need to seek out the OGs while they're still here. As Milford Graves once told me, "Spend time with people."

RIP, Eddie. You were a real one. Not a doubt in my mind. 

[jazzbo]

Thanks for sharing.

[Teasing the Korean]

17 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Thanks for sharing.

My pleasure!  I'll tell you about more of the jazz albums I discovered on my busboy's salary!

[JSngry]

41 minutes ago, ep1str0phy said:

As Milford Graves once told me, "Spend time with people."

There it is.

[jazzbo]

42 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

My pleasure!  I'll tell you about more of the jazz albums I discovered on my busboy's salary!

Okay, no hurry on my account. As you likely know I was thanking someone else.

[Gheorghe]

What a loss , such a great musician ! 

I think few People know that he was encouraged by Bud Powell, when he was Young. Both lived in Brooklyn and when Bud made a walk he heard Eddie Gale practicing and started to talk to him, I think this was in 1965. I have read that in Peter Pullman´s kindle book About Bud......