Eddie Gale's Music Memorial (Livestream)
Presented on Sat. Aug. 8, 2-4pm (PT), 5-7pm (ET)
Click here to view
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In lieu of flowers, Eddie’s family requests that donations be sent to the Jazz Foundation of America, an organization that Eddie and many musicians raised funds for to support healthcare for jazz musicians: https://jazzfoundation.org/covid19fund/ Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1941, Eddie Gale experienced the world of jazz firsthand through the borough’s community of jazz musicians. The great bebop pianist Bud Powell lived nearby and occasionally stopped outside the young musician’s house to hear him practice. Gale received lessons from trumpeter Kenny Dorham and before long was sitting in on jam sessions with the likes of drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach and saxophonists Illinois Jacquet, Sonny Stitt, and Jackie McLean. During these years, Gale absorbed the styles of the trumpet greats from pioneers like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie to hard bop practitioners like Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard. John Coltrane’s 1965 album Ascension heralded the arrival of a new generation of players like Eric Dolphy, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, and Pharoah Sanders. The new sounds made a strong impression on the young musician. Though he never recorded with the great tenor saxophonist, Gale had the privilege of sharing the stage with Coltrane on a number of occasions.
In the early ’60s, Gale (then in his early twenties) was introduced to composer, keyboardist, and intergalactic bandleader Sun Ra. Gale toured and recorded with Ra’s Arkestra throughout the ’60s and ’70s and remained in touch with Ra until his death in 1993. Ra’s perplexing tutelage extended from practical musical instruction to lessons on subjects like Egyptology, Phonetics, and Hieroglyphics. Gale’s trumpet can be heard on the Arkestra’s 1965 recording Secrets of the Sun.
The year that followed was a major breakthrough for Gale. Cecil Taylor brought the trumpeter on board for the recording of the pianist’s classic Blue Note debut Unit Structures. As a part of a seven-piece ensemble, Gale played alongside alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, bassist Henry Grimes, and drummer Andrew Cyrille: some of the finest proponents of the developing free jazz. Following the date with Taylor, Gale joined organist Larry Young’s group for the recording of Of Love and Piece. Besides having a direct impact on his developing sound, the recordings won the trumpeter an admirer in Blue Note co-founder Francis Wolff, who funded the release of Eddie Gale’s Ghetto Music (1968) and Black Rhythm Happening (1969). For the sessions, Gale assembled a sextet and nonet respectively, the latter of which included the great Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones and the soprano saxophone of Jimmy Lyons. On both dates, the ensemble was joined by an 11-piece vocal group dubbed the Noble Gale Singers. Combining the bebop and hard bop of his early teachers, the avant-garde sensibilities acquired from Taylor and the soul-jazz fire of Young, Gale’s music expertly bridged the gap between long-standing jazz traditions and the newer styles that attempted to shatter them.
At the start of the ’70s, Gale headed for the West Coast where he settled, connecting with a community of musicians in and around the California Bay Area. Following a year-long appointment as Artist in Residence at Stanford University, the trumpeter took the same position at the university in San Jose. As a result of his work within the city’s musical community, Mayor Norm Mineta proclaimed Gale San Jose’s Ambassador of Jazz in 1974.
Gale continued to perform and record with Sun Ra during the decade, playing on a series of late-’70s albums including Lanquidity, The Other Side of the Sun (both 1978), and On Jupiter (1979).
In the 1990s, Gale formed the Inner Peace Jazz Orchestra which performed at the annual Concert for World Peace in the San Jose area. Helping to bring jazz into the 21st century, the trumpeter made numerous appearances with Oakland hip-hop group The Coup, whereby Gale's trumpet could be heard engaging with the music's breakbeats and turntables. In the late 1990s Eddie Gale received a California Arts Council grant to host regular creative music workshops at the Black Dot, a grassroots organization and performance space in Oakland run by artist/activist Marcel Diallo and the Black Dot Artists Collective. Eddie’s collaboration with Desert Storm Veteran Dennis Kyne, that began in the 90s, helped develop music in the public schools schools and a free trumpet program for underserved youth in San Jose.
Through the 90's and 2000's, Eddie led groups performing at the Vision Festival X (New York), San Jose Jazz Festival, North Beach Jazz Festival (San Francisco), Bach Dynamite Society (Half Moon Bay) and Yoshi's (Oakland). His recordings featured collaborations with a wide range of creative musicians, including the following notable album releases:
The Eddie Gale Now Band with William Parker at Vision Festival X (2006)Alto Saxophone – John Gruntfest
Bass – William Parker
Design – Georgette Gale
Drums – Tee S. Holman
Engineer [Live Sound Recording] – Don Jacobs
Executive-Producer – John Gruntfest
Liner Notes – Bruce Lee Gallanter
Mixed By [Additional Mixing] – Fab Dupont
Photography – Roberto Barahona
Piano – Valerie Mih
Recorded By, Mixed By – Stefan Heger
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Ismael Navarrete
Trumpet – Eddie Gale
All Compositions By – Eddie Gale
The Remake and Beyond of Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music (2018)Featuring Vocals by Ms. Faye Carol, Bass by Marcus Shelby
Backup Singer Direction by Virginia Roberts
Valerie Mih – Piano
Destiny Muhammad – Harp & Vocal
Sandy Poindexter – Violin
Carolyn Jones – Vocal
Phil Jacklin – Vocal
Deena Angeletti - Vocal
Karl Evangelista – Guitar
Dennis Kyne – Guitar
Teresa Orozco – Flute
Forrest Stevens – Flute
Eric Marshall – Bass
Cedric Edwards – Bass
Tim Siefert – TrapDrums
Dante James – Trap Drums
Yusef Martinez – Hand Drums
Claude Ferguson – Hand Drums
Keith Hames – Hand Drums & Vocal
Mark Farley – Hand Drums
Michael Bell – Concert Announcer
Holding numerous concerts with his Eddie Gale Unit and the Inner Peace Orchestra, as well organizing fundraisers for musicians' health care, Eddie Gale took his music to premiere music stages, churches, universities and community organizations. In each of his musical expressions, he focused on themes of world peace, inner peace, creative freedom and love for humanity.
Eddie Gale was the oldest son of Edward and Daisy Gale Stevens, both deceased. He is survived by three of four siblings, his wife Georgette, his first wife Marlene; his six children: Donna, Marc, Chanel, Djuana, Gwilu and Teyonda, his 12 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, numerous nephews, nieces, cousins, friends and admiring jazz supporters worldwide.
~ Biography by Nathan Bush and various contributors