HAL GALPER TRIO - Invitation to Openness (Live at Big Twig)
Origin Records: Origin 82843
Hal Galper (piano) Tony Marino (bass) Billy Mintz (drums)
Recorded live at the Big Twig Studio, Roscoe, New York, September 27th 2008.
This isn’t the Hal Galper I knew of old; that being the hard bop stalwart of Phil Woods quartets and quintets of the eighties. Clearly I haven’t been keeping up. If I had I would have clocked his gradual transition to a freer, more expansive stylist, rich in semitones, looser and more flexible in rhythm, full of dense chromatic artifice. He calls this his `rubato` style and a truly distinctive expression of his own voice, a late career innovation which he has effected with the help of two kindred spirits in tune with his artistic vision.
Living in semi-retirement in idyllic Sullivan County in the middle of the Catskill mountains he has found the time and space to fulfil this ambition helped considerably by the proximity of a local arts centre with a concert room and recording facilities. It was here that he launched his fully fledged new conception in 2006 with the studio recording `Agents of Change` and in this latest release, recorded in the same venue but this time before a small audience, he performs a mix of standard and original fare opening with a version of `Embraceable You` which skirts around the changes of Gershwin’s tune without actually revealing the tune until the final bars.
The first of Galper’s originals follows; entitled `Rapunzel’s Luncheonette` it’s a theme which combines elements of his familiar bop linearity with pounding block chords and free atonality excitingly underpinned by some torrential drumming which eventually emerges as a solo as unconventional in its construction as the leader’s piano playing. The temperature is then reduced somewhat with a ballad that displays tinctures of Ellington’s `Prelude to a Kiss` which Galper calls ` Winter Heart`. Starting out with delicately wrought phrases it gathers a swirling momentum giving way to a pensively articulated bass solo which takes the piece to its tremulous conclusion.
John Taylor’s `Ambleside` is a cascade of arpeggios; a surprising choice I thought but one eminently suited to Galper’s new style, a brilliant piece of pastoralism inspired by a location in the English Lake District fleshed out to reflect the broader horizons of rural New York State. It ambles almost seamlessly into the title track which is a piece of through composed fluidity featuring an arco bass solo of chamber music sensitivity. In sharp contrast Galper then ups the tension with a storming version of `Ellington’s `Take the Coltrane` which after a taut, driving opening breaks up into a myriad of crystalline notes and a passage of free improvisation reminiscent of Cecil Taylor.
`Wandering Spirit` , another of Galper’s tunes, certainly lives up to its name; a deconstructed surge of near orchestral intensity it refuses to be pinned down to a recognisable melody; and then we have the final piece, a headlong charge into Parker’s `Constellation`, a tumbling abundance of arpeggios , sizzling cymbals, throbbing bass lines , another free form passage and a fierce drum solo to wind up a challenging but immensely rewarding selection that stays with you long after the final notes have faded, fulfilling in every respect, Galper’s mission to `make it new`
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Origin Records: Origin 82843
Hal Galper (piano) Tony Marino (bass) Billy Mintz (drums)
Recorded live at the Big Twig Studio, Roscoe, New York, September 27th 2008.
This isn’t the Hal Galper I knew of old; that being the hard bop stalwart of Phil Woods quartets and quintets of the eighties. Clearly I haven’t been keeping up. If I had I would have clocked his gradual transition to a freer, more expansive stylist, rich in semitones, looser and more flexible in rhythm, full of dense chromatic artifice. He calls this his `rubato` style and a truly distinctive expression of his own voice, a late career innovation which he has effected with the help of two kindred spirits in tune with his artistic vision.
Living in semi-retirement in idyllic Sullivan County in the middle of the Catskill mountains he has found the time and space to fulfil this ambition helped considerably by the proximity of a local arts centre with a concert room and recording facilities. It was here that he launched his fully fledged new conception in 2006 with the studio recording `Agents of Change` and in this latest release, recorded in the same venue but this time before a small audience, he performs a mix of standard and original fare opening with a version of `Embraceable You` which skirts around the changes of Gershwin’s tune without actually revealing the tune until the final bars.
The first of Galper’s originals follows; entitled `Rapunzel’s Luncheonette` it’s a theme which combines elements of his familiar bop linearity with pounding block chords and free atonality excitingly underpinned by some torrential drumming which eventually emerges as a solo as unconventional in its construction as the leader’s piano playing. The temperature is then reduced somewhat with a ballad that displays tinctures of Ellington’s `Prelude to a Kiss` which Galper calls ` Winter Heart`. Starting out with delicately wrought phrases it gathers a swirling momentum giving way to a pensively articulated bass solo which takes the piece to its tremulous conclusion.
John Taylor’s `Ambleside` is a cascade of arpeggios; a surprising choice I thought but one eminently suited to Galper’s new style, a brilliant piece of pastoralism inspired by a location in the English Lake District fleshed out to reflect the broader horizons of rural New York State. It ambles almost seamlessly into the title track which is a piece of through composed fluidity featuring an arco bass solo of chamber music sensitivity. In sharp contrast Galper then ups the tension with a storming version of `Ellington’s `Take the Coltrane` which after a taut, driving opening breaks up into a myriad of crystalline notes and a passage of free improvisation reminiscent of Cecil Taylor.
`Wandering Spirit` , another of Galper’s tunes, certainly lives up to its name; a deconstructed surge of near orchestral intensity it refuses to be pinned down to a recognisable melody; and then we have the final piece, a headlong charge into Parker’s `Constellation`, a tumbling abundance of arpeggios , sizzling cymbals, throbbing bass lines , another free form passage and a fierce drum solo to wind up a challenging but immensely rewarding selection that stays with you long after the final notes have faded, fulfilling in every respect, Galper’s mission to `make it new`
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
