Eddie Gale - Ghetto Music

EDDIE GALE - GHETTO MUSIC

The debut album by American trumpeter Eddie Gale, recorded in 1968 and released on the Blue Note label. A member of the Sun Ra Arkestra before and after taping these sides, Gale also played on Cecil Taylor's Blue Note debut, Unit Structures. “The aesthetic and cultural merits of Ghetto Music cannot be overstated,” stated AllMusic critic Thom Jurek. “That it is one of the most obscure recordings in Blue Note's catalog -- paid for out of label co-founder Francis Wolff's own pocket -- should tell us something. This is some of the most spiritually engaged, forward-thinking, and finely wrought music of 1968. What's more is that, unlike lots of post-Coltrane free jazz, it's ultimately very listenable. Soloists come and go, but modes, melodies, and harmonies remain firmly intact. This is militant music possessed by soul and spirit.”

Tracklist:

SIDE ONE: 

1. THE RAIN (Joann Gale-Eddie Gale)
2. FULTON STREET (Eddie Gale)
3. A UNDERSTANDING (Eddie Gale)

SIDE TWO:

1. A WALK WITH THEE (Eddie Gale)
2. THE COMING OF GWILU (Eddie Gale)

Personnel:

EDDIE GALE, trumpet, Soprano recorder, Jamaican thumb piano, steel drum, bird whistle.

RUSSELL LYLE, tenor sax and flute 

JUDAH SAMUEL, bass

JAMES "TOKIO" REID, bass

RICHARD HACKETT, drums

THOMAS HOLMAN, drums

NOBLE GALE SINGERS

ELAINE BEENER, lead singer

SYLVIA BIBBS 

BARBARA DOVE

JOANN GALE, lead singer on THE RAIN 

EVELYN GOODWIN

ART JENKINS 

FULUMI PRINCE 

NORMAN RIGHT 

EDWARD WALROND

SONDRA WALSTON 

MILDRED WESTON

ALL MUSIC COMPOSED, ARRANGED, AND CONDUCTED BY EDDIE GALE

LYRICS FOR "THE RAIN" BY JOANN GALE

ALL COMPOSITIONS PUBLISHED BY FRANCES MUSIC INC.—ASCAP

Cover Design by FORLENZA VENOSA ASSOCIATES

Cover Photos by RICHARD GRAF

Liner Photos by RICHARD GRAF, JEWEL VOILS, FRANCIS WOLFF 

Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER

Produced by FRANCIS WOLFF

Recorded in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, September 20, 1968.