Eric Gale - Touch Of Silk '1980

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. You Got My Life In Your Hands (4:48)
02. Touch Of Silk (5:08)
03. War Paint (4:24)
04. Once In A Smile (4:38)
05. With You Im Born Again (6:35)
06. Au Privave (8:45)
07. Live To Love (4:46)

In 1980, guitarist and composer Eric Gale came off the commercial success of
1979s Part of You (produced by Ralph MacDonald) and didnt do the obvious thing.
Rather than make another record that swung for the smooth jazz fences, he made a
darker, deeper, funkier, and bluesier album with legendary New Orleans producer
Allen Toussaint. The sessions included the cream of the Crescent Citys jazz-funk
crop as well as mates Charlie Earland, Grover Washington, Jr., and Idris
Muhammad, three of soul-jazzs greatest lights – with special guest Arthur
Blythe on the Charlie Parker nugget Au Privave as a curve ball. Toussaint wrote
four of the albums seven tracks, and they range from the murky blue soul-jazz of
You Got My Life in Your Hands to the sweet, boudoir-perfect urban-styled title
track. Gale is a consummate soloist, full of lilting and biting grooves, with
stunning phrasing that maximizes the rhythmic effect of his high strings (such
as on War Paint), and he never plays an extra note. The beautiful ballad With
You Im Born Again has Washington playing some of his most haunting soprano, and
the wildly funked-up Au Privave, a holdover from the bop generation that keeps
its original flavor despite the three-instrument front line of Earlands B-3,
Blythes alto, and Gales chunky bottom strings (which are accented in his comping
through the changes), is nothing short of astonishing. This is one of the great
versions of the tune, especially in this modern context, and offers solid proof
of Gales bebop roots.~Thom Jurek

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