Precious Soul was recorded on two consecutive nights at the Total Music Meeting festival in Berlin in November 1997. Charles Gayle alternated between tenor saxophone and piano, and was accompanied by his regular sidemen at the time, bassist Gerald Benson and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The CD begins with "Delight," over half an hour of continuous music of sustained interest. Gayle's voluble free saxophone playing is backed by a very swinging rhythm section -- nothing to reinvent the wheel, but the music is honest and engaging. "Honour," with Gayle at the piano, is one of two weak moments, the other being "Pray Always," where the saxophonist gets into a plaintive tone that is not his best. The first minutes of "Your Grace" features a delicate bass solo. The closing piece, "As Yourself," finishes where "Delight" started: hot, swinging free jazz. Gayle does not have the brutal power of one Peter Brötzmann or the emotional charge of one Ivo Perelman, but his playing is inhabited by a spiritual feeling that talks to the heart. Not his best album in career (or even from the 1990s-2000s), Precious Soul nonetheless delivers the goods.