# Jazz and chess: At 90 Charlie Gabriel is still making moves: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2022/09/19/jazz-and-chess-at-90-charlie-gabriel-is-still-making-moves-video-photos/
- Published: 2022-09-19T00:02:57+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**As an afternoon thunderstorm stalks the French Quarter, Charlie Gabriel sits in
a crypt-like chamber off Preservation Hall’s private courtyard, focused on his rapidly
diminishing prospects.**

Across the courtyard, tourists file into the hall for the first of the evening’s
four sets of traditional jazz. But the real action tonight is hidden from public
view.

Gabriel, the 90-year-old clarinetist, saxophonist and soul of the Preservation Hall
Jazz Band, is engaged in an epic backroom chess battle with the hall’s operations
manager, Howard Lambert. It isn’t going well.

Chess, like music, God and cannabis, is a recurring theme for Charlie Gabriel. Backstage
at the 2017 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee, he took on relative youngsters
Chance the Rapper (“I beat him”) and Jon Batiste (“I think I beat him too”).

He’s not faring as well today, even as he moves quickly, decisively, like he doesn’t
have time to waste.

“It depends on how hard Howard plays me,” he says. “If he puts those heavy moves
on me, I have to scratch my head.”

![NO.charliegabriel.adv.02.jpg](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Charlie Gabriel offers a handshake after Preservation Hall operations manager Howard
Lambert beat him in a game of chess in a back room at the New Orleans traditional
jazz venue on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

As Gabriel studies the chessboard in silence, Mary Cormaci, Preservation Hall’s 
digital media coordinator, slips into the room with a surprise: a hot-off-the-presses
vinyl copy of his new album, “89.”

Following seven decades as a globe-trotting sideman, “89” is the first album under
Gabriel’s own name to benefit from a worldwide record company rollout.

Sub Pop Records, the Seattle-based label that sparked the 1990s grunge movement 
with Nirvana and Soundgarden, released “89” on digital streaming platforms in February,
then on LP, CD and cassette in July.

It is an intimate sonic snapshot taken in the twilight years of a still hip, still
vital, much loved and respected elder statesman of New Orleans music, one of the
last of his generation.

Cormaci hands the milestone album to Gabriel. He glances briefly at the cover, then
sets it aside. Any emotional reaction will have to wait.

For now, he’s got a chess match to finish.

Besides, he recorded “89” months ago. And even at age 90 — _especially_ at age 90—
Charlie Gabriel lives in the moment.

![NO.jazzfest.050922.1326.JPG](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Charlie Gabriel, right, and Ben Jaffe perform at the Economy Hall Tent during the
2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Sunday, May 8, 2022.

### Music in his DNA

Sitting on his patio of the West End townhouse he shares with his second wife, Marsha,
Gabriel reflected on a lifelong journey that began and, following an extended detour
to Detroit, will likely end in New Orleans.

One of 11 children, he was blessed with the perfect jazz name — “Charlie,” as in
Parker, Gabriel, as in the archangel. Music is in his DNA. His father, Martin Manuel“
Manny” Gabriel, was a drummer who switched to clarinet and alto sax.

Growing up on North Galvez Street in the 6th Ward, Charlie heard clarinetist George
Lewis, trombonist Jim Robinson and other early jazz pioneers accompanying funeral
processions. Fluent on clarinet and able to read music, young Charlie filled in 
for local musicians off fighting World War II.

![NO.charliegabriel.adv.08.jpg](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Saxophonist and clarinetist Charlie Gabriel, 90, dances in the carriageway of Preservation
Hall in New Orleans as other musicians perform on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

“I was 11, 12 years old, playing with all these older musicians — Kid Howell, Kid
Sheik, Papa Celestin, Percy Humphrey, Willie Humphrey, whoever had a band that needed
musicians,” Gabriel recalled.

“That encouraged me to practice more so I would be qualified to play with these 
guys. I came up at the right time, in the right place. I was very blessed to have
all these older musicians tutor me. They helped me become who I am.”

His father took him to see his buddy Louis Armstrong. Armstrong rubbed young Charlie’s
head and said, “Manny, I’m going to take this boy on the road.”

“He was kidding, but I thought he meant it for real,” Gabriel said. “But it made
me feel good. I think that helped me as a young musician. That really inspired me.”

### From New Orleans to Detroit

After World War II, Gabriel’s family moved to Detroit. Manny insisted they make 
annual trips back to New Orleans.

“My dad went to Detroit, but he never did leave New Orleans in his mind and thoughts,”
Charlie said. “I kept the New Orleans connection through my father.”

![Arcade Fire's Krewe du Kanaval parade drums and dances into the Treme](data:image/
png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg
==)

Charlie Gabriel of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, left, and legendary New Orleans
vocalist Irma Thomas ride on a pedicab in Congo Square as the Krewe du Kanaval makes
its way towards the Treme neighborhood in New Orleans on Tuesday, February 6, 2018.

As a teenager in Detroit, he joined vibraphonist Lionel Hampton’s band, sharing 
bandstands with a young Charles Mingus. In the 1960s, he toured with Aretha Franklin.
He spent a decade with Cab Calloway’s drummer, J.C. Heard, and collaborated with
trumpeter Doc Cheatham. He traveled the world; Singapore was a favorite destination.

He was married to his first wife, Mary, for a half-century; they raised a daughter,
Gail. Along the way, he never worked a day job: “Everything I asked God for, he 
has given to me.”

In 2006, he got the call that brought him home.

### ‘This larger-than-life person’

After Hurricane Katrina scattered New Orleanians across the country, Preservation
Hall faced a musician shortage. Drummer Shannon Powell suggested to Preservation
Hall leader Ben Jaffe that he recruit Charlie Gabriel.

“He was almost like this larger-than-life person that everybody always talked about,”
Jaffe said. “He knew the New Orleans repertoire and language, but he also knew all
these other languages, like modern jazz and soul and R&B.”

For the next three years, Gabriel commuted between Detroit, New Orleans and the 
road. One reason he didn’t move right away: his burgeoning relationship with Marsha.

She was a retired sociologist whose first husband, a saxophonist, played in Aretha
Franklin’s band alongside Charlie before she met either of them. Over the years,
she and Gabriel crossed paths within the close-knit Detroit music community.

By the early 2000s, both Charlie and Marsha were widowed. He helped console her 
after her husband’s death.

“His kindness, his warmth, were too irresistible,” she said. “He is the most charming
person you will ever meet, very kind, very spiritual. It was no big stretch to fall
in love with Charlie.”

They married in Detroit in 2009, then officially moved to New Orleans. He’s been
front and center at Preservation Hall ever since.

### Game for anything

History is integral to the Preservation Hall brand. Musicians of Gabriel’s pedigree,
versatility, mindset and age are essential.

Jaffe also pushes the Preservation Hall Jazz Band forward, adding talented young
players and fostering collaborations with rock and pop stars. Gabriel is game for
anything, from hanging out with the Foo Fighters to jamming with Chance the Rapper.

“He always says, ‘Musical conversation cancels out complications,’” Jaffe said. “
He has this incredible curiosity about him. His thirst for knowledge and quest for
excellence is a daily commitment.”

For younger musicians, he is a touchstone. Trombonist Craig Klein will call Gabriel
if they haven’t seen each other in a while, “just to feel that energy, vibration
and love. I can’t get enough Charlie G.”

Gabriel spends countless hours at Preservation Hall and at Jaffe’s former home near
Frenchmen Street, which Jaffe converted into a residential-style recording studio.
They drink coffee, play chess and make lots of music.

Gabriel is all over 2013’s “That’s It!,” the first album of all-original material
in the band’s history.

When newsman Ted Koppel visited Preservation Hall in December to tape a “CBS Sunday
Morning” segment, he interviewed Gabriel and Jaffe.

Gabriel traveled with the band on a pilgrimage to Cuba chronicled in the 2018 documentary“
A Tuba to Cuba.”

![PRESERVATION HALL](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Veteran newscaster Ted Koppel, left, interviews the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s
Charlie Gabriel, center, and Ben Jaffe in December 2021 in New Orleans for a “CBS
Sunday Morning” segment.

He also appeared alongside Snoop Dogg and New Orleans trumpeter Kermit Ruffins in
the 2019 Netflix documentary “The Grass Is Greener,” hip-hop legend Fab 5 Freddy’s
study of jazz and rap music’s association with pot and the devastating effect of
American policymakers’ demonization of it.

Like Louis Armstrong, Gabriel is a dedicated cannabis consumer.

“The cats that smoked marijuana played better than those that didn’t,” he opines
in “The Grass is Greener,” before inhaling on-camera. “I’ve been smoking for 70 
years and really enjoyed it.”

For him, it is not necessarily recreational.

“Charlie’s position has always been that cannabis is something he uses as a ritual,
as something that helps him get in a certain frame of mind,” Jaffe said. “It’s almost
like lighting incense or saying a prayer for Charlie. It’s not a joking matter for
him. It’s kind of like Bob Marley or Bunny Wailer. ”

Before COVID-19, Jaffe and Mickey Raphael, Willie Nelson’s longtime harmonica player,
arranged for Gabriel to visit Nelson’s tour bus.

“Willie got out his guitar, Charlie had his clarinet, and they played ‘Stardust,’”
Jaffe recalled. “Just musicians getting to do what musicians love to do.”

Perhaps Gabriel and Nelson, the world’s most famous pot proponent, also smoked a
little bit?

“More than a little bit,” Jaffe said. “It was a beautiful afternoon. They were like
best buddies. Willie wanted to take him” on the road.

### ‘Full with love and music’

After a lifetime living out of suitcases and hotel rooms, Gabriel doesn’t go on 
the road much anymore, but still plays locally. COVID sidelined him for the 2022
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s first weekend, but he rebounded to front 
an Economy Hall Tent all-star band on the second Sunday.

He sat to play clarinet and sax, but stood to sing “Come With Me,” a song he wrote
to help lure Marsha to New Orleans. Onstage, he radiated joy.

![NO.jazzfest.050922.1397.JPG](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Saxophonist Charlie Gabriel, right, and trombonist Craig Klein  perform at the Economy
Hall Tent during the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Sunday, May 8,
2022.

“When my horn’s in my mouth, I change to a different individual. I just become so
full with love and music, I try to do everything at one time, everything that I 
have learned.

“But I know how to separate it now. You learn how to separate your music so it’s
much more pleasing to the ear of other people. You can’t worry about showing off
your skill as much as making them happy.”

Making other people happy explains in part why he recorded “89.”

“I just figured, me being as old as I am, it would be good. I’m at that age when
you’re just lucky you’re living. If you get an opportunity to do something, to reflect
upon your life, to produce something, you take advantage of it.

“And they want to get as much out of me as possible before I close my eyes.”

### Melodies right out front

Jaffe, as the album’s producer, kept arrangements simple on “89.” Guitarist Joshua
Starkman is the main accompanist, with Jaffe on upright bass. Percussion is minimal,
so Gabriel’s clarinet, tenor sax and voice — he sings, sweetly, on three tracks —
shine brightest.

“I wanted his melodies to be right out front,” Jaffe said. “Nobody plays melodies
like Charlie.

“I had to use every ounce of patience and experience I had to get Charlie to do 
something this reflective, because he’s not someone to look back. It’s always, ‘
What’s next down the road? What haven’t I done?’”

Six standards and two originals, clocking in just shy of 40 minutes, make up “89,”
starting with “Memories of You,” a favorite of Gabriel’s father.

![Charlie Gabriel album cover](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

The cover of Preservation Hall saxophonist and clarinetist Charlie Gabriel’s 2022
album “89,” which was named for the age at which he recorded it and released by 
Sub Pop Records.

As a boy in the 1940s, Gabriel watched clarinetist Louis Cottrell Jr. showcase “
Stardust” with Sidney Desvigne’s big band. He can close his eyes and remember the
exact sound. “So it became part of who I am as a young man. Every time I play ‘Stardust,’
I think about Mr. Louis Cottrell.”

On the closing “I Get Jealous,” Gabriel sings and plays tenor over Starkman’s supple
guitar runs while brushstrokes caress a snare drum.

Gabriel’s playing is never flashy or too busy. “You don’t want to play all the notes,”
he says. “You want to play the right ones.”

Did he play the right notes on “89”?

He laughs. “I was lookin’ for ‘em. Sometimes you don’t find them. But you have to
look to find them.”

### In his element

The advantages of releasing “89” through a well-funded label like Sub Pop are apparent.
The album’s cover, evoking classic Blue Note Records designs of the 1950s and ’60s,
features a portrait of Gabriel by acclaimed photographer Danny Clinch. Clinch’s 
usual clients include the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam and Tim
McGraw.

The official video for the song “I’m Confessin’,” shot in sumptuous black and white,
depicts a dapper Gabriel cruising serenely in the back seat of a classic car and
hanging with Jaffe and other musicians in the studio.

At 90, Gabriel has succeeded in distilling age into an effortless elegance.

“I’ve been a blessed person, usually. I have no pain. I have no ailments. I’ve been
healthy just about all my life.”

He’ll keep playing music as long as possible.

“I don’t know if I’m going to give it up or not. I give that a lot of thought. I
wonder if I have anything more in me that I can bring to the universe.”

![NO.jazzfest.050922.1517.JPG](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Preservation Hall’s Charlie Gabriel performs with his solo band at the Economy Hall
Tent during the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Sunday, May 8, 2022.

He holds up his hands.

“These fingers can only do so much. They’re getting old. I know myself. I cannot
play like I played when I was 70 or 80. I can tell the difference.

“I just think I’m going to keep on playing until God tells me not to play anymore.
And he _will_ tell me.”

### ‘Live until you die’

God didn’t tell him to stop playing chess on that rainy afternoon at Preservation
Hall. Gabriel, who adorned the September 2020 cover of Chess Life magazine, knew
when it was time.

As Howard Lambert methodically captured his pieces, the result became inevitable.
Gabriel reluctantly conceded and shook his opponent’s hand, adding good-naturedly,“
You’re a rotten individual.”

Lambert countered, “You taught me everything.”

The previous weekend, Gabriel beat Lambert three times. But today, Lambert turned
the tables, winning twice.

“When you play Charlie, it’s a lose-lose,” he admitted. “I can’t stand losing to
Charlie. But I really can’t stand winning against Charlie, either.”

Gabriel doesn’t dwell on defeat. After the chess board is packed away, he finally
examined the translucent yellow vinyl of “89” and read the liner notes out loud.

![NO.charliegabriel.adv.06.jpg](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Preservation Hall saxophonist and clarinetist Charlie Gabriel sees a vinyl copy 
of his 2022 album ’89’ for the first time, in a back room of the New Orleans jazz
venue on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

“How about that, Charlie G?” he exclaimed, clearly pleased. “Not bad. I’m very proud
of it.

“Everyone that touches this music does something to it. You bring fresh air into
the music. Once it gets into the atmosphere, it stays.”

He thinks a lot about passing on knowledge and wisdom.

“A guy like myself, I’m not a baby — I’m 90 years old. I have to do what I have 
to do and hand it down to some others.

“I’m gonna be gone soon. I’m not afraid to die, so I don’t worry about it. But you
have to live until you die. You have to keep doing what you do.”

That said, he was done for the day.

He would not join the other musicians inside Preservation Hall’s main room. His 
sweatpants and sneakers weren’t the proper attire. Also, he was exhausted after 
recording all day at Jaffe’s studio.

So he gathered up his horn and his pipes and stepped out into the storm, sharing
an umbrella with Lambert, headed home.

But as he passed through Preservation Hall’s carriageway, he paused. The musicians
were treating the tourists to “Shake That Thing,” a standard New Orleans party song.

Gabriel grinned. He couldn’t resist. He danced and clapped and sang along, not quite
ready to exit the building, still living life while he can.

![NO.charliegabriel.adv.09.jpg](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/
WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

Musician Charlie Gabriel, 90, leaves Preservation Hall in New Orleans during a thunderstorm
on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

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com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/1c/61c5cc1c-a972-5d06-b636-37853e99bc56/
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