Eddie Gale - Afro Fire
(Black Beauty)
In the 60s, Brooklyn-born Eddie Gale's trumpet graced recordings by Cecil Taylor (Unit Structures), Larry Young (Of Peace and Love), and the Sun Ra Arkestra (Secrets of the Sun, On Jupiter). Wrapping up the decade with a couple of solo albums for Blue Note (Ghetto Music and Black Rhythm Happening, both of which were reissued by Black Beauty's sister label Water last year), Gale then disappeared into the woodwork for the next three decades, occasionally emerging for live recordings with Oakland's hip-hopping The Coup or to lend a lip to Bicasso's Living Life Lookin' Out (LLCrew, 2001). Now, over 35 years later, San Jose's "Ambassador of Jazz" returns with his first new recordings since 1992's A Minute with Miles semi-tribute. From the upbeat Latin-flavored salsa tribute to his home stomping grounds, "Welcome To Silicon Valley" (imagine an instrumental version of Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot") and the smooth, funky tribute to former boss Sun Ra ("Free You-Free Me") to the refreshingly laid-back vibe of "Tribal Future," it's a welcome addition to the collections of any aficionado of hot-blooded, cool-tempered music, be it rock, jazz, or otherwise.
While purists may balk at all the synths and rhythm tracks, I think they symbolize how Gale has changed with the times and embraced the new technology, allowing him to be both economical (David Hayden is credited with bass, synth, and rhythm programming) yet contemporary. Besides, how can anyone living in Silicon Valley object to synthetics?
Gale's muted playing on "Inner Peace to You" is in top form, including a nifty little appropriation of Al Hirt's familiar theme to the old "Green Hornet" TV show. The album's catchy title track features faux orchestration from Chet Smith, and will once again have your happy feet donning dancing shoes. The ominously sexy yet hesitantly cautious "New York After Hours" effectively captures the allure of the city that never sleeps, perhaps better than anything since Bernard Herrmann's Taxi Driver soundtrack. And anyone who has ever traveled on "Route 95," the main North-South interstate on the East Coast, will enjoy Gale's colorful traveling music, the snappy rocksteady groove of which will surely ease the frustration of whiling away the hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Finally, I can't think of a cooler, more refreshing way to end a steamy summer day than succumbing to the serpentine charms of the smoothly exhilarating "Tribal Future." Afro Fire is a welcome return to the spotlight for this vastly underrated and criminally under-recorded horn player.
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