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 drew on stylistic devices pioneered in the '60s by the late free jazz icon Albert Ayler. Like Ayler, Gayle employed a huge tone which, more often than not, was split into individual harmonic components. Timbral distortion was a key aspect of Gayle's work. His improvisations featured long, vibrating, free gospel melodies full of huge intervalli...