Hal Crook?

[Larry Kart]

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.

[Larry Kart]

Bassist Paul Del Nero shines on that album, too:

http://www.berklee.edu/faculty/detail/paul-del-nero

[sonnymax]

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

Edited October 25, 2010 by sonnymax

[Larry Kart]

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

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

[John Tapscott]

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 October 25, 2010 by John Tapscott

[Chuck Nessa]

Phil (after the '50s) is a problem for me too. Very skillful but it gives me the heeby jeebies. Sorry.

[Free For All]

Hal Crook's a monster. I have a trio recording under his name called Only Human that is very good.

He's written a couple excellent improvisation books too.

[bigtiny]

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.

[.:.impossible]

Saw him play many times at AS220 in Providence with various combinations of The Fringe. Garzone, Gulotti, Lockwood, but never all four at the same time. Usually under the name Um.

I felt very fortunate to live in a town with that caliber of musicianship. I miss it.

[sidewinder]

I caught that Phil Woods band with Hal Crook back in 1989/90. Very good trombonist. That band had Jim McNeely just in as replacement for Hal Galper. Crook did quite a bit of arranging for the band, if I remember rightly.