Hal Galper - At Cafè des copains (1990)

This is Hal Galper's first live solo piano concert, though it was released following his Maybeck date for Concord. The veteran's hour-plus set consists mainly of familiar standards and jazz classics, but he has something new to add to each of them, no matter how many recordings have been made of these songs. "Willow Weep for Me" has the playfulness of Art Tatum's famous recordings without resorting to mere mimicry, while the rushed tempo of "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" seems headed for a train wreck, though Galper never falters in the least, and his gallop through Duke Ellington's "Cottontail" is simply breathtaking. But it is Galper's stunning, dramatic treatments of ballads like Gershwin's "My Man's Gone Now" and Kurt Weill's "It Never Was You" that especially stand out from this very enjoyable outing from his 1990 gig at Toronto's Cafe des Copains. This somewhat difficult-to-locate but in-print CD is well worth acquiring. © Ken Dryden