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Hal Galper Trio: Invitation To Openness
ByThe change in Galper's trio approach blossomed fully on six subsequent Origin Records recordings with his West Coast Trio, featuring drummer Jeff Johnson. Two of those Origin Records recordingsAiregin (2012) and O's Time (2014)stand as late-career masterpieces for Galper.
Given the decade and half of productivity and consistent excellence of the West Coast Trio, Galper's work with Marino and Mintz might seem a footnote, with only one album in the books. But that footnote becomes bigger and better with 2022's Invitation To Openess, recorded in 2008 with Galper's east coast crew. This offering catches the threesome in fine form, opening with a eleven-plus minute take on Gershwin's "Embraceable You." This tunein these hands demonstrates just how beautiful odd beauty can be. This conventional (though superior; it is Gershwin) Great American Songbook tune goes to unexpected placesstraight ahead at times, often aggressive, warped away from recognizability at others, surprises around every corner.
Galper's creative foundation comes, in part, from the straight ahead tradition, having served considerable time with trumpeter Chet Baker and alto saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods. But he also did a stint in saxophonist Sam Rivers' band, which must have nudged him further in the free direction than he might otherwise have gone. In his semi-retirementover the course of time spent in the shedhe sounds completely free. Those of a religious persuasion might say "Let go and let God." Of Hal Galper we could say he "Let go and let rubato."
As with all of his rubato releases, Galper makes wise choices in jazz standards and Great American Songbook tunes on Invitation To Openness, exploring the permutations of the previously-mentioned Gershwin composition, pianist John Taylor's "Ambleside," Duke Ellington's "Take the Coltrane" and Charlie Parker's "Constellation," with four of his own distinctive tunes mixed in. All of this moves into exhilarating and unexpected territory, no matter how familiar the source material, in this a look back at the beginnings of Hal Galper's move into rubato.
Track Listing
Embraceable You; Rapunzel's Luncheonette; Winter Heart; Ambleside; Invitation to Openness; Take The Coltrane; Wandering Spirit; Constellation.
Personnel
Album information
Title: Invitation To Openness | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Origin Records
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Hal Galper Trio
Album Review
Dan McClenaghan
Invitation to Openness
Origin Records
Tony Marino
Billy Mintz
John Bishop
Jeff Johnson
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Cannonball Adderley
Phil Woods
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John Taylor
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