Furious Rubato

This album contains the most complex, daring, exhilarating music of Galper's career
JazzTimes

Best known for his work with Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley, John Scofield, and the Phil Woods Quintet, Hal Galper brings a lifetime of world-class performing experience to his latest group endeavor. Teaming with bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop, the trio explores standards, originals and group improvisation utilizing "Rubato" playing, an open and circular approach to time and melody that Galper has been exploring & developing over the last several years. Here, interpreting such classics as Naima, Milestones and Miles Ahead, the trio creates a dynamic, fluid and timely snapshot of an important direction in modern jazz.

Production Info:

Recorded by BECK HENERER-PENA at Avast Studios, Seattle on June 28th, 2006
Mixed by FLOYD REISTMA at Studio Litho
Mastered by MARK GUENTHER, Seattle Disc Mastering
Band photography by CHAD MCCULLOUGH
Cover Photograph by LINDSEY BORSCHEL
Design & Layout by JOHN BISHOP

Reviews of Furious Rubato

All Music Guide (Alex Henderson)
In the liner notes that he wrote for his 2006 session Furious Rubato, Hal Galper discusses the style of playing known as rubato and explains why it interests him so much. The veteran acoustic pianist has a lot to say on the subject of rubato (which, as the website Wikipedia points out, has been used by everyone from Frederic Chopin to Megadeth), bu ...

Coda (Bill Barton)
The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines rubato as: "An elastic, flexible tempo involving slight accelerandos and ritordandos that alternate according to the requirements of musical expression." Pianist Hal Galper's liner notes elucidate quite eloquently his theories regarding rubato, parsing the basic pulse, "bending and shaping" the melody and ha ...

All About Jazz (Dan McClenaghan)
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 ...

JazzTimes, June 2007 (Thomas Conrad)
I thought I knew something about Hal Galper. I did not know Hal Galper at all. Hal Galper has evolved. In the liner notes he says that he has become fascinated with rubato-bending and shaping tempo to enhance expression. He has been practicing "sporadically at ... unpredictable times of the day or night" for six years, exploring this concept. Of ...

Cadence (Marc Medwin)
Hal Galper's offering was the biggest surprise. It's the furthest out, his playing much more adventurous than I would have expected. Clearly in the tradition, his keyboard attack is nevertheless somehow brazen, bold and certain, as with Andrew Hill of the Strange Serenade period. Even the usually serene "Naima" emits raw energy, the melody twisted ...

All About Jazz.com (Ken Dryden)
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 ...

Jazz Review (Andrew Johnston)
Rubato is a difficult to define term, but it can be described as taking liberty in the tempo to obtain a certain feeling or mood. It is more common in classical solo pieces, but pianist Hal Galper, along with Jeff Johnson and John Bishop explore this abstract musical concept in a jazz trio setting on Furious Rubato. As the title suggests, the t ...

Jazz Society of Oregon (Jim Corcoran)
LV's Uptown? Portland, OR - Friday April 6th, 2007 Hal Galper is a master of progressive jazz. A noted author and educator, he has taught music for many years in several of the top schools in the jazz pantheon, and his touring career has brought him to all corners of the world. What a delight it was to have him here. His bandmates, John Bishop a ...