found: African American National Biography, accessed January 23, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Gale, Eric; rhythm and blues musician/ singer, guitarist; born 20 September 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, United States; chemistry major at Niagara University; joined King Curtis's group, becoming a greatly in-demand session player (1963); appeared on recording dates of, among others, Jackie Wilson, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Joe Cocker, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Esther Phillips, Nina Simone, and Al Jarreau; enhanced albums for jazz-oriented artists, including those of Quincy Jones, saxophonists Johnny Hodges, Sonny Stitt, YusefLateef, Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington Jr., Hank Crawford, Illinois Jacquet, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, and Art Farmer, organists Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott, pianist Bobby Timmons, percussionist Mongo Santamaria, guitarist George Benson; led 11 individual albums (1973-1988); strongest jazz date, In a Jazz Tradition (1987); died 25 May 1994 in Baja California, Mexico)
