Born in Buffalo in 1939, Charles Gayle had hit New York City by the early '70s. He almost made his mark with an album on ESP-Disk' in 1974, but the label shut down before it came out.

When he next recorded in 1988, he had been homeless for a while, sheltering in an empty Brooklyn storefront. The Knitting Factory gigs and concurrent CDs from Swedish imprint Silkheart, the Knit's own house label, the Italian label Black Saint, and a particularly well-received-in-Europe album on FMP, Touchin' On Trane, all boosted his profile and to a lesser extent his finances.

He moved up to an East Village squat, then finally a small apartment. Further fame came when he collaborated with Henry Rollins in the mid-'90s, and the European festival circuit helped as well. Charles Gayle's first release for ESP-Disk is this 1994 high-energy performance recorded live in Santa Barbara, California. Total fire music. Charles Gayle: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and vocals; Michael Bisio: double-bass; Michael Wimberley: drums.