Based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A., Hal Brooks is an uncompromising artist and world traveler whose experience includes the concert stage, the recording studio and the silver screen.
He has been performing, studying, and teaching music for over twenty-five years, proficient in jazz, classical, African music, Latin music, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, country & western, and contemporary/traditional folk music. He is a graduate of the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Dave Peck, Randy Halberstadt, Peter Mack, Hadley Caliman, Julian Priester, Jim Knapp, and Chuck Deardorf, among many others.
IMPROMPTUS is a collection of solo piano improvisations, crazy music for crazy times.
What is the sound of irrationality?
Of nihilism?
Of schizophrenia?
This is music based upon a false premise: to create a recording of spontaneous music. How exactly does one "prepare" to be "spontaneous?"
Hal says, "If you need a label, call it “post-post-modern music,†although, 'the sound of musical buffoonery works as easily for me."
Hal continues: "I’ve been doing this sort of thing for as long as I can remember, almost from the time I first started sitting at a piano. I was simply trying to be funny or weird- I would amuse myself (and occasionally attempt to amuse others) by improvising nonsensical music. One of my favorite games was to imitate a left hand 'stride' pattern (bass note...chord...bass note...chord) without any regard for rules of harmony, and then play a fast, jagged, dissonant melody line on top of it. In my mind’s eye, it was a Vaudeville gag: come out in tux and tails, bow deeply, look very serious... and then play this crazy music.
"Since I can’t capriciously summon a venue, a piano, and an audience whenever I find myself in the mood to move my fingers this way, why not try instead to prepare recording equipment and leave it at the ready? Perhaps when inspiration strikes, a single mouse click can record the madness, which in turn can bemuse, infuriate, or otherwise entertain any soul who cares to lend his or her ears for a minute or three (or seven)."
IMPROMPTUS is the result of over a year spent collecting these musical meanderings. "Most of what I do professionally is very straight-forward and traditional," says Hal, "IMPROMPTUS is a window into that part of myself that wants to create music without any rules or limitations."
Musique sans frontières!
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.halbrooks.net
Track List:
1. Impromptu Bizarre
2. Bossa Languissant
3. Impromptu Sentimental
4. A Load Of Bollocks
5. Blisters
6. Scar Tissue
7. Impromtpu Bizarre #2
8. La Rêverie
9. Reprisal
10. Loops
11. Late Morning
12. Playful
13. Where Are You?
Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
He has been performing, studying, and teaching music for over twenty-five years, proficient in jazz, classical, African music, Latin music, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, country & western, and contemporary/traditional folk music. He is a graduate of the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Dave Peck, Randy Halberstadt, Peter Mack, Hadley Caliman, Julian Priester, Jim Knapp, and Chuck Deardorf, among many others.
IMPROMPTUS is a collection of solo piano improvisations, crazy music for crazy times.
What is the sound of irrationality?
Of nihilism?
Of schizophrenia?
This is music based upon a false premise: to create a recording of spontaneous music. How exactly does one "prepare" to be "spontaneous?"
Hal says, "If you need a label, call it “post-post-modern music,†although, 'the sound of musical buffoonery works as easily for me."
Hal continues: "I’ve been doing this sort of thing for as long as I can remember, almost from the time I first started sitting at a piano. I was simply trying to be funny or weird- I would amuse myself (and occasionally attempt to amuse others) by improvising nonsensical music. One of my favorite games was to imitate a left hand 'stride' pattern (bass note...chord...bass note...chord) without any regard for rules of harmony, and then play a fast, jagged, dissonant melody line on top of it. In my mind’s eye, it was a Vaudeville gag: come out in tux and tails, bow deeply, look very serious... and then play this crazy music.
"Since I can’t capriciously summon a venue, a piano, and an audience whenever I find myself in the mood to move my fingers this way, why not try instead to prepare recording equipment and leave it at the ready? Perhaps when inspiration strikes, a single mouse click can record the madness, which in turn can bemuse, infuriate, or otherwise entertain any soul who cares to lend his or her ears for a minute or three (or seven)."
IMPROMPTUS is the result of over a year spent collecting these musical meanderings. "Most of what I do professionally is very straight-forward and traditional," says Hal, "IMPROMPTUS is a window into that part of myself that wants to create music without any rules or limitations."
Musique sans frontières!
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.halbrooks.net
Track List:
1. Impromptu Bizarre
2. Bossa Languissant
3. Impromptu Sentimental
4. A Load Of Bollocks
5. Blisters
6. Scar Tissue
7. Impromtpu Bizarre #2
8. La Rêverie
9. Reprisal
10. Loops
11. Late Morning
12. Playful
13. Where Are You?
Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
- JAZZ: Free Jazz
- CLASSICAL: Contemporary
- TYPE: IMPROVISATIONAL