Jazz Articles about Hal Galper

Hal Galper Trio: Airegin Revisited

by Dan McClenaghan
December 9, 2012

Hal Galper's Airegin Revisited is exhilarating. The pianist has been working at his artistry for more than a half century, and he is moving surely into the “elder statesman of jazz" category, riding the furious wave of several distinctive and idiosyncratic trio recordings. Galper, like alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and pianist Martial Solal, has gone deeper into the music than seems possible, taking a great many standards and unleashing them, reshaping the familiar tunes with his unwavering vision into a ...

Hal Galper Trio: Trip the Light Fantastic

by Dan McClenaghan
November 24, 2011

About eighty percent of the jazz piano players out there can fit into one of two schools: that of the introspective, harmonically rich Bill Evans mode; or the more percussive and gregarious Bud Powell bebop approach. There's also a small slice of the that pie that draws it primary inspiration from bright and splashy Art Tatum/Oscar Peterson pre-bop playing style, along with various subsets. Then there are those who take a foundation of one of those approaches and craft something ...

Hal Galper: E Pluribus Unum

by Dan McClenaghan
April 16, 2010

Pianist Hal Galper began his journey into “rubato" playing early on in the new millennium, after a quite vibrant career in the mainstream, playing and recording with the likes of all-star alto saxophonists Phil Woods and Cannonball Adderley, legendary trumpeter Chet Baker and guitarist John Scofield. It hasn't always been a smooth ride. At a show with guitarist John Stowell at Carlsbad, California's Museum of Making Music back in 2007, drawing a rather conservative crowd--a group of listeners that was ...

Hal Galper: Now Hear This

by Ken Dryden
February 3, 2010

Hal Galper has had a long, distinguished career as a jazz pianist, bandleader, composer and educator. While the pianist has made a flurry of recordings over the past few years, record labels are beginning to mine the wealth of material he produced during the '=1970s. Now Hear This was first issued by Enja in 1977 and subsequently reissued in its original form, though this edition sports a redesigned cover and a bonus track. Galper's inspired quartet includes trumpeter Terumasa Hino, ...

Hal Galper: Furious Rubato

by Ken Dryden
September 9, 2007

Hal Galper's aptly named Furious Rubato, finds the pianist opening the listener's ears by stretching the tempo of the tunes and frequently seeming to be playing independently of his rhythm section without ever losing sight of the harmony within each song, approaching free jazz but never abandoning post-bop. He's accompanied by bassist Jeff Johnson (who has worked with Galper regularly in the past) and drummer John Bishop, both of whom excel in meeting the pianist's demands. The ...

Hal Galper: Furious Rubato

by Jason West
July 22, 2007

Hal Galper Furious Rubato Origin Records 2007

The new recording from pianist Hal Galper, with double-bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop, initially conjures to mind the free improvisations of Cecil Taylor, Don Pullen with Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner with John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, whose “Milestones and “Miles Ahead appear among these eight tracks. Mr. Galper plays orchestral piano, utilizing the full range of his instrument to interpret ...

Hal Galper/Jeff Johnson/John Bishop: Furious Rubato

by Dan McClenaghan
March 14, 2007

Pianist Hal Galper spent a big part of his career working with some of the giants of the mainstream, players like trumpeter Chet Baker, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, guitar master John Scofield and bop alto sax legend Phil Woods. With his Agents of Change (Fabola Records, 2006), a trio outing with drummer Billy Mintz and bassist Tony Marino, he moved out of the familiar flow to explore the “rubato style" of playing, an open, circular approach to time and melody.