The East Village has been transformed into a high-rise highbrow apocalypse, but at least one vestige of downtown's grizzled avant-garde remains: jazz titan Charles Gayle. "I walked into this because one winter, I couldn't make it anymore, living in the squat and the cold all the time," explains Gayle, formerly homeless survivor of New York City's mean streets of old, now 15-year resident of a modest one-bedroom apartment below Tompkins Square Park. He has added muscle to his formerly rail-thin, streets-worn frame and is unapologetic about his homeless stint. "Still here," says the trailblazing saxophonist and pianist. "I ain't... More >>>