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Hal Galper: E Pluribus Unum

By Dan McClenaghan
April 16, 2010
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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

saxophone, alto
1931 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Phil Woods and

Cannonball Adderley

saxophone
1928 - 1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Cannonball Adderley, legendary trumpeter

Chet Baker

trumpet and vocals
1929 - 1988

" data-original-title="" title="">Chet Baker and guitarist

John Scofield

guitar
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">John Scofield. It hasn't always been a smooth ride. At a show with guitarist

John Stowell

guitar, electric

" data-original-title="" title="">John Stowell at Carlsbad, California's Museum of Making Music back in 2007, drawing a rather conservative crowd—a group of listeners that was expecting, perhaps, a traditional approach to the standards—grumblings could be heard in the folding chaired audience, hushed comments like, "Why doesn't he play "How Deep is the Ocean" straight? I almost couldn't recognize it."

The term "rubato" refers to a flexibility in approach to tempo, the speeding up or slowing down of the rhythm at the artists' discretion. Nobody does this quite as furiously as Hal Galper, and with bassist

Jeff Johnson

bass
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Jeff Johnson and drummer

John Bishop

drums
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">John Bishop, he has hooked up with two like-minded compatriots.

Previous Galper recordings in this style include Agents of Change (Fabola Records, 2006), Furious Rubato (Origin Records, 2007), and Art-Work (Origin Records, 2009). All of these are exciting musical adventures, but E Pluribus Unum—with, again, Johnson and Bishop—is the most electrifying of the batch, due certainly to the on-the-edge freshness and vitality of the sound's live aspect.

Irving Berlin's "How Deep is the Ocean" opens the show, and it is a turbulent sea, wind whipped and wildly churning. The trio plays with a sense of abandon, but the thread of the familiar melody doesn't break. Other non-originals include a particularly prickly version of

Duke Ellington

piano
1899 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Duke Ellington's "Take the Coltrane," and a calamitous reading of

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker's "Constellation" to close the show. In between, Galper includes four tunes from his own pen, starting with the searing, headlong "Rapunzel's Luncheonette," the reflective but still energetic "Wandering Spirit," and the aptly-titled "Invitation to Openness."

The appreciative crowd, the night of this recording at the 2009 Earshot Jazz Festival, accepted that invitation, and E Pluribus Unum permanently documents Galper taking his artistry to a new level.

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Track Listing

How Deep Is the Ocean; Rapunzel's Luncheonette; Wandering Spirit; Take the Coltrane; Invitation to Openness; Soliloquy; Constellation.

Personnel

Hal Galper

piano

Hal Galper: piano; Jeff Johnson: bass; John Bishop: drums.

Album information

Title: E Pluribus Unum | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Origin Records

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