Charles Gayle - Time Zones (2006)

Charles Gayle, a musician best known as a tenor saxophonist with a ferocious and uncompromisingly free style, reveals a very different side of himself at the piano — far more versatile and at times lyrical, yet no less original. His solo album Time Zones brings together seven of his own compositions, in which the musical roots of his youth intertwine with lessons absorbed later in life: stride piano, chord voicings worthy of Duke Ellington, and runs recalling Art Tatum sit alongside free-improvisation techniques learned from Cecil Taylor. Most of the pieces grow out of small melodic fragments used as a starting point for the whole composition. The track "Blues In Mississippi" stands out in particular — a colorful, spaced-out blues packed with raging tone clusters, paradoxically delivered at a relaxed tempo. Much of the improvising unfolds outside strict tempo, giving the listener the sense of catching the musician's thought process in real time, as he weaves disparate pianistic traditions into a single statement.

Tracklist:
1-1 Charles Gayle - Time Zones [8:02]
1-2 Charles Gayle - Rush To Sunrise [7:28]
1-3 Charles Gayle - Delight [6:46]
1-4 Charles Gayle - Blues In Mississippi [7:01]
1-5 Charles Gayle - Rhythm Twins [6:10]
1-6 Charles Gayle - Inner Edges [7:22]
1-7 Charles Gayle - That Memory [6:18]