1993 · Album
Consecration
Recorded 1993 · Black Saint · Produced by Not specified in available sources
The Cello's Fury: Foundation of Consecration
Gayle's playing achieves an unrivaled emotional impact despite its time-free chaos and difficulty.
Consecration lives in the space between saxophone and strings. Gayle's alto and bass clarinet are restless, pushing into multiphonics and fierce scale runs, but they land hardest when the cello player holds ground beneath them. Don Snowden heard this clearly in the Los Angeles Times: the cello, paired with bass and drums, creates what he called a "furious foundation"—and it's that foundation that makes the album work. Without it, Gayle's music risks floating into pure abstraction. With it, the performances have weight.
This isn't easy listening. Brian Flota's AllMusic review awarded it 4½ stars and acknowledged as much: "these performances are not easy to listen to, given their time-free chaos." But Flota also noted what the foundation makes possible—the emotional impact lands because there's something solid to push against. Snowden singled out specific moments where dynamics opened up space for breathing room: "Glorious Saints" and the bass clarinet feature "Thy Peace" work best because the arrangement, built around that cello/bass/drums structure, knows when to step back.
Recorded in 1993 for the Italian Black Saint label, Consecration sits among Gayle's free-jazz work but feels less purely abstract than some of his other records. The cello player—whoever brings that discipline and weight to these sessions—is the reason the album breathes at all. That's not a small thing.
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