Forward
By Dave Liebman
Hal and myself go back to the first
loft I had on west 19th Street. In fact
I remember a session with Bob Moses,
Randy and Mike Brecker doing some
fusion stuff back in 1969. He is
definitely one of the senior citizens
of jazz having served his time with
greats like Cannonball Adderley and
Phil Woods. Hal has recorded some
remarkable music, ran his own trio from
top to bottom meaning music, bookings,
PR et al, for most of the 1990s;
authored a book on the touring musician
that is a goldmine of information; been
one of the prime sources of straight
forward talk in the jazz education
business and most important, a great
pianist to have playing alonsgside you.
It has been my pleasure many times to
"hit" with Galps.
Hal is from the generation slightly
ahead of mine having done his early
apprenticeship years in the 60s, when
there were few jazz books or courses to
take part in. But like myself, Hal
thought through a lot through the years
about how to articulate his specific
musical ideas. The material in this
book has been in the works for decades
with articles, pamphlets, etc., along
the way explaining parts of the
philosophy from time to time. I have in
my collection Hal's notes from the
early 80s about forward motion,
pentatonics and upper structures. But
alongside the desire to explain the
music, he also possesses a great gift
for writing in such a way that you feel
like he is there in front of you giving
the lesson. His language is clear,
precise and thoughtful with a pervasive
sense of humor throughout as well
wonderful stories from the real jazz
world that underscores his points.
Galps sums it up in his own words at
the beginning of Chapter Three:
"Improvising is the reordering of the
notes of a scale into their strongest
melodic possibilities." "Forward
Motion" is chock full of ideas that
most improvisers never thought of in
such detail in order to achieve this
"reordering", or put simply theme and
variations ad infinitum. What Hal
concentrates on for the most part is
the very subject that is least
discussed in texts of any sort, which
is the use of rhythm, jazz rhythm to be
exact, in order to improvise countless
ways on a given line. We are used to
books of variations based on pitch
changes, harmonic super-impositions,
syncopation, etc., all harmonic and
melodic ideas that Hal does touch upon
also. But with his emphasis on the
upbeat and half time as the important
mechanisms for feeling jazz rhythm
along with other concepts, Galper
offers countless ways of manipulating
both simple and more complex material
for unlimited possibilities. The
forward motion theory uses concepts of
displacement, sequential reordering,
unusual accent points, appogiaturas
strategically placed and more.
There are some ingenious ideas
throughout. One in particular was very
interesting: try using the rhythms only
of a complicated head like
"Confirmation" but in the context of
another tune and chord cycle for
freeing up one's patterned ways of
thinking. His comments on King Oliver's
admonishment to Louis Armstrong about
the importance of melody before one
attempts embellishment and even some
insight into Bach's use of "FM" make
for entertaining reading. And the truly
innovative aspect of Forward Motion is
the interactive part. Students will be
able to hear and play along with the
written examples. Hal is up on the
techno scene for sure!
I am so pleased that someone has
addressed these ideas, especially on
rhythmic issues in a coherent, unified
and practical manner with abundant
examples to play. Even glancing at this
book will generate new ideas for
improvisers at any level.
