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Hal Crook?


Larry Kart

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My antipathy for latter-day Phil Woods has denied me the chance to encounter much Crook before, but a few days ago I picked up a 1995 CD "Directions," led by Boston-based guitarist-composer Giovanni Moltani, a Berklee faculty guy, with Crook as the sole horn player, and I am very impressed. Agile as heck on the horn, Crook thinks just as swiftly, and his use on several tracks of something called a "Harmonizer," which divides, a la the old "Multivider perhaps, though the results sound different) Crook's single line into multiple lines (and which sounds from that description like it might be something from Hell), is instead fascinating.

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Bassist Paul Del Nero shines on that album, too

Paul was my best friend growing up. I'd play guitar and he'd play Paul Sr.'s organ or the trombone, and later on, the double bass.

Speaking of Hal Crook, I really like the date he co-led with Joe Diorio for Ram Records, called Narayani

d2571354x13.jpg

Edited by sonnymax
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Bassist Paul Del Nero shines on that album, too

Paul was my best friend growing up. I'd play guitar and he'd play Paul Sr.'s organ or the trombone, and later on, the double bass.

Speaking of Hal Crook, I really like the date he co-led with Joe Diorio for Ram Records, called Narayani

d2571354x13.jpg

Del Nero's harmonic grasp/imagination is something else. And I like his "bass-y" sound.

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Well, if you can take latter-day Phil Woods (I can and do very happily, no antipathy here), then you can hear Hal on most of Phil's Concord CD's between roughly '88 and '92. And yes, he's an excellent player. With Phil's group, Hal's playing reminds me a bit of Rosolino (high praise). The alto and the trombone in the front line is a very compatible and enjoyable sound.

Edited by John Tapscott
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hal's a great trombonist and musician. He's also a great arranger.

When I was at Berklee, I would occasionally walk by a practice room

and catch him 'practicing', which in those instance was him just

improvising extemporaneously. He's a monster! =:-)

He HAS written several books about improvisation, and in my opinion has the

only viable approach out there for truly enabling the improvisor. He teaches

in Mass. (besides his teaching at Berklee) and is very good at it.

Very impressive guy.

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