Eric Gale's 1973
Forecast album on the
Kudu label is one of his most varied texturally. Produced by
Kudu label boss
Creed Taylor, the rhythm tracks were arranged by
Gale, and the horns and strings by
Bob James.
Taylor surrounded
Gale with the cream-of-the-crop of the current session players:
jazz's most soulful drummer,
Idris Muhammad, was in the house for most of the album, and
Rick Marotta filled out the rest. Saxophonists included
Joe Farrell,
Pepper Adams, and
Jerry Dodgion (an underrated ace who made his name with
Curtis Amy on his
Pacific jazz sides in the early '60s), and trumpeters included
Randy Brecker and
Jon Faddis.
Hubert Laws and
George Marge sat in the flute chairs, and
James played piano and synths.
Gale, for his part, was blended into a meticulously arranged and gorgeously orchestrated set of mixed tempo originals, and a pair of carefully chosen covers:
"Killing Me Softly," by
Charles Fox and
Norman Gimbel, and
Antonio Carlos Jobim's and
Aloysio de Oliviera's deeply moving
"Dindi." Gale's single string lines bite harder than some of the Brazilian counterparts, but because his
blues inflection is so pronounced against the lush strings, keyboards, and horns, it works wonderfully.
Gale's own grooved out
"Cleopatra," and the otherworldly
funk and
blues feel of
"White Moth," are just off-kilter enough to add a labyrinthine dimension to the album.
Gale was a tear when he was on
Kudu, and this album is the first example of his particular brand of street tough yet bedroom romantic
soul-jazz for the label. ~ Thom Jurek