Eric Gale

Eric J. Gale (20 September 1938 – 25 May 1994; Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, United States) was an American jazz, jazz-fusion and session guitarist, celebrated as one of the most prolific and versatile studio musicians of his era, whose guitar work underpins hundreds of recordings across jazz, soul, pop and reggae.

Early Life

Gale was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to an American mother and a British father; his English grandfather's family ties meant that childhood holidays were often spent visiting relatives in the United Kingdom, an experience he later credited with broadening his outlook, and he grew up fluent in German and Spanish.

He began playing guitar at the age of twelve. An exceptionally able maths student, he attended private, all-boys Catholic schools and skipped junior high school entirely; while in high school, he frequently visited the home of saxophonist John Coltrane to sit in on jam sessions, an experience that shaped his musical sensibility, and he remembered fondly being given after-school snacks by Coltrane's wife.

Gale went on to earn a Master's degree in chemistry at Niagara University and held a teaching position at Penn State University, where he faced the momentous choice between a doctorate in chemistry and a career in music; his decision to pursue music full-time did not sit well with his mother.
 

Career

Gale built his reputation through the 1960s as an in-demand New York session guitarist, recording behind artists including Bobby Lewis, King Curtis, Quincy Jones, Van McCoy, Jesse Belvin, Maxine Brown, Bobby Timmons, George Benson, Lena Horne, Joe Cocker, the Drifters, the Flamingos, Illinois Jacquet, Herbie Mann, David "Fathead" Newman, Mongo Santamaria, Paul Simon, Nina Simone, Jimmy Smith, Clark Terry, the Fania All-Stars and Jackie Wilson.

In March 1967, he was among the session musicians on Van Morrison's recording of what became "Brown Eyed Girl", cut at A&R Studios in New York and originally titled "Brown-Skinned Girl" before the title was changed.

In the early 1970s, he became a house guitarist for Creed Taylor's CTI Records, recording alongside Bob James, Stanley Turrentine and Grover Washington Jr., and was a founding member of the jazz-funk group Stuff, alongside drummer Steve Gadd and others.

His debut solo album, Forecast, was released on CTI's Kudu subsidiary in 1973, the first of around a dozen albums he issued as a leader. In 1975 he travelled to Kingston, Jamaica, where he wrote, arranged and produced the instrumental album Negril at Harry J Studio, joined by saxophonist Cedric Brooks, pianist Richard Tee, Wailers bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett and reggae musician Peter Tosh, who contributed rhythm and lead guitar.

While still in Jamaica, he was called back to New York by his close friend Roberta Flack to contribute to her album Killing Me Softly (1973), whose title track went on to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year; he also appeared on Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway's "Where Is the Love" (1972).

Gale's guitar work featured prominently on Van McCoy's disco hit "The Hustle" (1975) and Grover Washington Jr.'s "Just the Two of Us" (1981), and he continued to record extensively across genres over the following two decades, working with musicians including Phil Upchurch, Ashford & Simpson, Patti Austin and Billy Joel, among many others. In November 1993, he reunited with his former Stuff bandmates to record the album Made in America (A Remembrance of Richard Tee), released in 1994.

Personal Life

Gale was married to Masako Murakami-Gale, with whom he had three daughters and, in time, four grandchildren; those close to him described him as a man who rarely smiled in public but was, by his family's account, an affectionate and devoted father at home.

According to reported accounts, in the late 1960s Frank Sinatra approached Gale to contribute to the recording of "My Way", a claim said to be referenced in Sinatra's autobiography, though this could not be independently verified through other sources.

Gale's decades of session work left a lasting mark on the sound of American popular music, with his guitar heard on landmark recordings across jazz, soul, pop and reggae, and he is remembered by collaborators and critics alike as a musician's musician whose adaptability and taste made him one of the most trusted guitarists in the recording studio.

Gale died of lung cancer on 25 May 1994, at the age of fifty-five, in Baja California, Mexico.