Artist: Eric Gale
Eric Gale was an American jazz and R&B guitarist.
Born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, Gale grew up in a diverse household. His paternal grandfather was from Yorkshire, England. He had extended family in Barbados and Venezuela. Gale often visited the U.K. and Venezuela as an adolescent, which influenced his style into adulthood. He was fluent in Spanish.
Gale started playing the guitar at age 12. In high school, he visited John Coltrane's home after school and sat in on jam sessions, which inspired Gale's readily recognizable style.
Gale received his Master of Science in chemistry at Niagara University.He was also on the football team. Later, Gale was pursued by Frank Sinatra to work on the hit song "My Way", as mentioned in Frank Sinatra's autobiography. Gale decided to pursue a musical career full-time instead of getting his Ph.D. in Chemistry.
Roberta Flack asked Gale to work with her on the Killing Me Softly album, and the album was a hit.
Gale often worked as a session musician, recording with musicians such as Gary Burton, Joe Cocker, King Curtis, The Drifters, The Flamingos, Aretha Franklin, Lena Horne, Illinois Jacquet, Billy Joel, Herbie Mann, David "Fathead" Newman, Diana Ross, Mongo Santamaria, Paul Simon, Nina Simone, Jimmy Smith, Clark Terry, Bobby Timmons, and Jackie Wilson.
In the 1970s he became a studio guitarist for CTI Records, recording with Bob James, Stanley Turrentine, and Grover Washington Jr., and was a member of the R&B band Stuff. His first of many albums as a solo act was released by Kudu.
Further information about Eric Gale is found here.
This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Gale, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
Who was Eric Gale?
Eric Gale: Videos
Eric Gale - Multiplication Live 1982 at Montreux Jazz Festival