Hal Schaefer 1925-2012

[brownie]

Pianist Hal Schaefer died Saturday at his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/arts/music/hal-schaefer-jazz-pianist-and-marilyn-monroes-vocal-coach-dies.html?_r=0

[Stereojack]

I am familiar with some of the recordings he made in the 1950's, but never knew about the Monroe connection.

[bichos]

his name was always a connection with boyd raeburn to me.

keep boppin´

marcel

[Big Beat Steve]

His album in the RCA Victor Jazz Workshop series (1956) is a very interesting one.

His "Just Too Much" album on RCA (1955), OTOH, really is an oddity in places (and I am NOT talking about the cover artwork! ). Not bad really, but talk bout MM never coming to rest anyplace (see the link above) - maybe Hal Schaefer had his own moments like that at that time too. His version of "All The Things You Are" on that album sure sounds restless to me, as if he wanted it to get it over and done with as fast as possible ...

And maybe I'm stating the obvious but others of his albums certainly were a lot less jazzy. Got his "Music That Reminds Me Of You" (UA, 1961) among a batch of others one day. Mood music if you're in the mood for it ("Sweet Sue" with strings all over the place and mildly dissonant piano up front and "Alexanders Ragtime Band" taken at sleepwalking tempo - ouch ...). Some previous owner of my copy seems to have had ambivalent feelings about that one ... two tracks got 5 stars, most were marked "SL" for "slows", and "among My Souvenirs" is annotated "Too slow - even for nite time" whereas next to "Solitude" it says "Pure garbage"! (Though I have a feeling TTK might feel differently about this album ...)

At any rate, Hal SChaefer sure got around.