Of a Peace

Trumpeter Eddie Gale wants the world to listen.

by Shaun Brady

"Inner peace to you." Those are the first words Eddie Gale says when he answers the phone, and the last before hanging up. He signs off his e-mails with them. They provide the title of a track on his latest CD, 2004's Afro Fire. Gale's Inner Peace Orchestra plays an annual Concert for World Peace in his hometown of San Jose, Calif.

"People say that [peace] is so far off. No — as long as you get inner peace in your own life then you can really appreciate world peace, because then you've done all you can to try to keep peace alive." Listening to the relaxed, soft-spoken confidence of Gale's voice, it's easy to believe he has achieved the first, and he comes damn close to convincing you he could accomplish the second. After all, he claims to have influenced the outcome of a college football game in 1971, promising the Stanford team a victory if they allowed him to play at their halftime show.

The idea that music can change the world is not surprising considering the musicians whom Gale considers his mentors. "I came out of the Cecil Taylor-Sun Ra-Coltrane school. I'm learning more and more as time goes on from what I experienced with them."

Gale joined the Arkestra in the early 1960s and continued to play with them sporadically for 20 years, culminating in the gorgeous and underrated Lanquidity in 1978. He notes proudly that Sun Ra referred to him as "the original avant-garde trumpeter," and credits him with proving that the style Gale heard in his head was legitimate. "People around me would say, "Hey man, keep with the chord changes.' But when I met and heard Sun Ra, I said, "This is actually real. Cats do get out there and play like this!'"

Gale played on Cecil Taylor's landmark 1966 Blue Note recording, Unit Structures, which led to label co-founder Francis Wolff personally financing a pair of records with Gale as leader in 1968-69. Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music and Black Rhythm Happening are both large ensemble works that bear the influences of Gale's forebears but are distinctively his own, fusing styles into a mélange that still sounds forward-looking more than 30 years later.

Too forward-looking, perhaps, because they soon sank into oblivion. Eddie Gale moved to California in 1971 and dropped off of the broader cultural radar, though he remained active locally. Blue Note never reissued either album, which finally made their CD bow in 2003 on Water Records. Shortly thereafter, Black Beauty released Afro Fire, Gale's first disc since 1992 and only his second date as leader since those long-ago Blue Note sessions.

The new album, while not as innovative or inventive as his '60s masterpieces, features electronics and samples partly inspired by a strange recent collaboration with hip-hop provocateurs The Coup. Gale performed with them on and off for a year. "I didn't always agree with everything they were saying, but I could identify with the beats and rhythms and I just threw my little weird stuff in there. I had a ball."

Gale's Slought Foundation show marks his first visit to Philly in over three decades. He brings a quartet featuring altoist John Gruntfest, bassist Sudeman Hakim, and T. Squire Holman, one of two drummers who played on Ghetto Music back in 1968. Despite his laid-back attitude and mellow soloing on Afro Fire, a five-minute live disc sent out to promote this tour leaves no doubt that Gale can still burn.

Enjoying the newfound attention, Gale looks forward to touring again. "The music is out there, just waiting for us artists to get ourselves into position for it to come through us."

Eddie Gale Now Band plays Tue., June 14, 8 p.m., $15, Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut St., 215-222-9050, www.slought.org.

Eddie Gale
Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music
(Water)

Black Rhythm Happening
(Water)
Gale's 1969 Blue Note releases, reissued in 2003, bear the stamp of his tenure with the Arkestra, in their large ensemble improvs, vocal chants and rhythmic density. But Gale's ideas descend from space to the street and reflect the influence of soul, gospel and contemporary rock. "The Rain" starts with folksy acoustic guitar, joined by the wistful vocals of Gale's sister Joann. The lyrics are picked up by the 11-piece Noble Gale Singers as the doubled rhythm section enters, after which the horns take over. It's an exhilarating opening to a breathtaking album, and the funkier Black Rhythm Happening continues in the same vein, replacing Ghetto's two drummers with Elvin Jones, which comes up about even.

Eddie Gale
Afro Fire
(Black Beauty)
The cover of Gale's 2004 comeback CD apes the classic Blue Note look, but the music inside is anything but traditional. While four musicians are present, three are credited on electronic instruments and the result is basically a Gale solo outing. The trumpeter plays a mellow muted horn over hip-hop beats and synth washes, sounding more meditative than on his incendiary '60s work. The loose concept explores the troubles Gale witnessed as Santa Clara became Silicon Valley, and "how people responded to the whole world coming down on 'em." "Free You — Free Me" pays tribute to Sun Ra, equating free jazz with the larger concept of freedom.