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Hal Galper Trio: Trip the Light Fantastic
ByA veteran of the groups of trumpeter Chet Baker and alto saxophonist Phil Woods, Galper can certainly claim a bebop foundation. But he has taken that foundation and flown free with it, as documented in his recent Origin CDs Furious Rubato (2007) and E Pluribus Unum (2010)where he explored the rubato style of playing, an approach that lends elasticity to time and tempo, and often engenders wildness and abandon.
Galper opens the set with Sammy Fain/Bob Hilliard's "Alice in Wonderland," a tune famously covered by Evans on his masterpiece Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Riverside Records, 1961). This is not a floating Evans version, however; Galper and band matesdrummer John Bishop and bassist Jeff Johnsontake the tune on a furiously tumultuous ride, full of urgency, pushing in the direction of flying out of control, without ever doing so.
Jule Styne's standard "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" is more restrained, a deeply ruminative and intimate conversation between Galper and Johnson that leads into the ominous Galper original, "Suspension," which puts the trio's edgy interactivity and ability to sustain a prickly momentum on full display. The title tune, another Galper original, has a swaying, fractured grandeur, an off-center, freewheeling beauty full of mystery and intrigue.
The trio wraps it up with "Be My Love," a film tune written for vocalist Mario Lanza. Bishop's drums sizzle and detonate unpredictably; Johnson's bass rumbles; and the piano notes careen with a scintillating, headlong freedom, closing out Galper's finest trio outing to date.
Track Listing
Alice in Wonderland; Babes of Cancun; Get Up & Go; Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry; Suspension; Trip the Light Fantastic; Be My Love.
Personnel
Album information
Title: Trip the Light Fantastic | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Origin Records
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Hal Galper Trio
CD/LP/Track Review
Hal Galper
Dan McClenaghan
Origin Records
United States
Bill Evans
Bud Powell
Art Tatum
oscar peterson
Chet Baker
Phil Woods
John Bishop
Jeff Johnson
Trip the Light Fantastic