If you've been sleeping on Hal Galper, now's the time to wake up. At 73,
the veteran pianist is making some of the most challenging and rewarding music
of his career with his trio that includes bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John
Bishop. The band, whose "E Pluribus Unum" (Origin) was one of the
best jazz CDs of 2010, makes a rare stop in Detroit on Friday at the Virgil H.
Carr Cultural Arts Center.
Boston-bred, Galper apprenticed with saxophonist Sam Rivers and
trumpeter Chet Baker in the '60s. In the '70s and '80s he worked with alto
saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods and later led a series of
invigorating trios. Along the way he recorded a gaggle of incendiary post-bop
albums, among them "Reach Out," "Children of the Night,"
"Now Hear This" and "Redux '78."
Galper's best work marries bebop discipline with looser harmonies and
rhythms, a lethal wit and a go-for-broke attitude. He's a true improviser; his
solos percolate with hip allusions and inside jokes.
His latest trio ups the ante by exploring a unique rubato concept that
bridges freedom and form without abandoning harmonic structure. Rubato is the
artful slowing down and speeding up of tempo to heighten musical expression. As
applied by Galper and company, the result is an elastic pulse that bobs and
weaves around the beat in a three-way dialogue.
Free-form playing has long been part of jazz, but Galper's twist is to
address standards and originals with a similar sense of openness; the familiar
melodies and harmony offer listeners comforting road signs within the swirling
maelstrom.
"The trio tries to play without 'intention' from night to
night," Galper wrote in an e-mail last year. "We're not saying, 'I'm
going to play this idea or that idea,' which is too self-conscious. We try to
let the music take us to where it wants to go totally by the intuitive process,
i.e. letting the autonomic nervous system work for you without conscious decision-making.
If we're not surprised, then the audience won't be, either."
8 p.m. Friday, Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center, 311 E. Grand River,
Detroit. 313-965-8430. $25. The trio leads a free master class at 11 a.m.
Saturday at the Carr Center. Musicians welcome.
Star bassist Stanley Clarke has performed
in metro Detroit several times recently with Chick Corea, but this time he
returns with his own group. A virtuoso on both electric and acoustic bass,
Clarke favors an eclectic, high-energy mélange of idioms -- jazz, R&B,
funk. They don't call it fusion for nothing. With Hiromi, Ruslan Sirota, Ronald
Bruner Jr.
8 p.m. today, Orchestra Hall, Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward,
Detroit. 313-576-5111. www.dso.org. $18-$60.
CLASSICAL
The venerable Talich Quartet offers a rarity for the Cranbrook Music
Guild: the String Quartet No. 1 by Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942), a Prague-born
composer of German-Jewish descent who perished in a Nazi camp. The program also
includes Mozart and Schubert. 8 p.m. Wednesday, Christ Church Cranbrook, 470
Church Road (off Lone Pine), Bloomfield Hills. 248-645-0097.www.cranbrookmusicguild.com. $25.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra performs a
new work by Osvaldo Golijov alongside Rodrigo's "Concierto de
Aranjuez," featuring guitar soloist Xuefei Yang, and Tchaikovsky's
Symphony No. 5. Joana Carneiro conducts. 10:45 a.m. and 8 p.m. Friday,
Orchestra Hall, Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward, Detroit.
313-576-5111.www.dso.org $15-$50.
Composer, arranger and DSO bassist Rick Robinson
leads his CutTime Simfonica in the first of a series of neighborhood concerts
marking a partnership between the DSO and the Arts League of Michigan.
Robinson's sextet, featuring DSO musicians, marries classical, jazz and other
idioms in an informal setting.
7 p.m. Sunday, Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center, 311 E. Grand River,
Detroit. 313-576-5111. www.dso.org $15.
Contact Mark Stryker: 313-222-6459 or mstryker@freepress.com
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