April 16, 2008
Jeez louise! Now another ten months is gone. Oh well, there is some news: THREE NEW CDS!!!!
So, i haven't been ignoring my music. Just this website. And i wonder why so many others ignore it as well LOL.
The CDs are not officially released, but pending approval of one final art proof, they will be real CDs by 1st of May. It struck me that, with the release of these 3 CDs, i can sincerely claim to have averaged one CD release per year for the last four years. Simply doing one a year would have been easier, but much fun was had and i'm VERY happy with how the music sounds.
More (i promise!) as events unfold. peace...
...hal
June 17, 2007
Jeez! The gig listed on the “Info” page was a year old! Seems a common thing among artist websites: neglect. A favorite band of mine was coming to town; this band usually features one of my favorite pianists. As part of my trying to determine if he would, in fact, be with the band when they played, I visited his website. I was disappointed to see that he was scheduled to be touring Europe during the dates in question. Then a friend insisted he WAS joining the band for the local gig, so I went back to the website. Sure enough, those Europe tour dates were from the previous year! So at least part of my guilt at my own laziness was obviated.
I have a few artist friends with websites and we all seem to have this problem. The initial excitement at becoming part of the digital age and being online seems to fizzle out once we realize we have created another facet to our lives that needs constant attention and requires a certain regular time commitment.
I find also that it’s easy to feel I’m on an island, and begin to wonder if anybody ever reads this? No one has written me to say, “hey, your website is out of date,” or, “when can we expect the next journal entry?”
As I’m writing this I am in Blackstar studio finishing up mixing tunes. It’s sounding good and I’m excited to have some fresh recordings. My excitement is doubled by the fact that this is NOT another Impromptus. These recordings are of myself on piano with a band; in most cases, a piano/bass/drums trio but also some quartet recordings with a guitarist added to the band. So much has happened since the first of these recordings took place last year in August. I have continued to play Le Moulin du Grove in Coconut Grove on a regular basis, and I have been blessed to have been joined by outstanding young bassists and drummers. Our music is always well received at Le Moulin. I have started singing! A couple times an evening I will add vocals to one of the favorite standards we love to play.
When I write that the new music is not another Impromptus, I mean not only is it group playing and not solo, but it is not all free-form improvisation as was Impromptus. There are original tunes including smooth jazz/pop jazz, hard-swinging bop feels and yes, some free form improv., but that’s a completely different listening experience when it’s three or four musicians that are doing it. I also recorded my first (and thus far only) song in French, “Les Idiots” (“The Idiots”).
My immediate plan is to shop these songs as demos. Depending on what happens with that, I may end up self-producing my next release or releases… I probably have enough recorded music to fill 2-3 CDs. Stay tuned…
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
I have been quite busy, although (obviously) NOT keeping up this journal. But it's all good, as they say. Spent some time in the studio in August, working on what will hopefully become the next CD. Actually I have three CDs all planned out now... in my head. Financing is an issue, of course, but at least I have a vision AND I have started. Starting... yeah... an important first step (n'yuk n'yuk).
For the recording in August, I took good advantage of all the great musicians I have been meeting in the past year. Andres Roa was the drummer for two trio sessions, one with Bruce Eno on bass and the other with Brian Lang. My personal favorites are the improvisations we recorded. The following week there were two nights of a quartet with Andrew Atkinson on drums, Mike Bordelon on bass and Fernando Ulibarri on guitar, followed by a session with me, Mike and Andrew recording more trio music. Everybody played great and there was a LOT of good music recorded. We recorded my original compositions and some bizarre arrangements of standard tunes.
Recording took place here in Miami at Blackstar Studios, with Don Hyink engineering. Don is wonderful to work with, he has a great sense of humor and there was laughter a'plenty. He is all business, however, when it comes to getting sound to tape. Even the rough mixes sound good, every instrument is present and very well-recorded. I guess it's obvious I am pretty excited about the whole thing.
Before the group recording I spent an evening at Blackstar transferring an old singer/songwriter album (SECONDS) from DAT into Pro Tools on my laptop. SECONDS was originally released in 1990, when I was living in Seattle and gigging around the Puget Sound area as a singer/songwriter and as a lead guitarist with various bands. My intention is to create mp3 files of the songs on SECONDS and make them available for download here on this website. Who knows? I may even do a little "re-mixing." A hip-hop version of "Charlie and Max" perhaps? Okay, on second thought...
A special little "shout out" to Kerime in Amsterdam, Lis in California, and Leslie (where are you Leslie?). Old friends who found me on the web and sent a hello. I'm putting the old music up here for you and others like you. Thank you so much for your kind words and support. PEACE
Friday, June 16, 2006
Yes, I KNOW, I've been away for a month. In that month we had gigs at Sheba scheduled, then cancelled, then re-scheduled. When things happen like that you know there's NO WAY any of that makes it onto this here website... still finding it difficult to give all of my various projects the attention they deserve, especially the website. Any webmaster will tell you what a time-suck maintaining a website is.
Anywho, there was a gig at Sheba this past Tuesday, and once again we were fortunate to have Fernando Ulibarri on guitar. It was a great gig, and as a special bonus I got home in time to watch the final minutes of the NBA Finals, game three. Our hometown HEAT really took a couple of good beat-downs in Dallas, but they triumphed, overcoming a 13 point deficit with 6:30 to go. Shaq hit two clutch free throws (so SHUT UP already!!!) and Gary Payton hit the game winner, aided in no small way by Dwyane Wade rejecting Dallas' closing seconds shot attempt. Then last night the HEAT got some payback, routing Dallas by 24 points.
Okay, it's no secret: I am huge sports fan! Basketball is my favorite, and my hometown team is in the finals battling for the league championship. So I'm pretty psyched! My second favorite is soccer so you better believe I'm jacked up for a month of World Cup action. I'm rooting for the U.S. (of course!) and also pulling for France (my sentimental favorite) and Mexico (I love the way they play so aggressively, plus they're the other North American representative.)
Okay, back to MUSIC: Andres can't make it to Le Moulin this weekend, and Mike suggested having a guitarist instead of a drummer, something that I had originally wanted very much to do since beginning the regular gig at Le Moulin. As Fernando was right there to confirm the date, it was a done deal. Weather permitting, we will play tonight at Le Moulin.
Recording this summer is looking better every day. Just starting to firm up dates and create a "roadmap." Stay tuned... PEACE
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Did a FAHBulous gig this past Tuesday at Sheba. Billed as Kenaz Jazz Quartet, it is the trio (me, Mike Bordelon, Andres Roa) with a fourth musician. This week it was a friend of Mike's, Fernando Ulibarri on guitar. This guy really smokes! The band sounded great. We have three more dates lined up, and two of those will be with Fernando. Check the news for details. I'm already excited!
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The heat is on! Already the spring sun has turned hot here in South Florida, and playing with the dogs means intense sweating, but of course that doesn't stop me...
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
WOW! Doing a website is so time consuming! No wonder people charge a lot for designing and maintaining websites. It is money well-earned. No one is paying me but that doesn't mean I should just let the site remain static and grow stale. In fact, my wife's patience and tolerance is a form of payment, in this regard I am actually a rich man and a very well-paid webmaster.
I updated the bio page and infused it with links, mostly to my former professors at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. My former bio didn't even mention Randy Halberstadt, and that's shame on me. Randy was my first jazz piano teacher at Cornish, and he was a truly excellent teacher. He has a studied, methodical approach to teaching fundamentals which was an absolute perfect fit for me at the time. I am guilty of neglecting Randy's influence as I tend to dwell on my junior and senior years when I studied jazz with Dave Peck and classical with Peter Mack. But if I was at all able to learn from these two it is owing to the preparation I got from Randy. At that time Randy also taught the first year of jazz theory, and this too he made clear, concise, and easy to understand. I had spent years shying away from jazz, completely befuddled by its mysteries. Randy's theory class removed the scales from my eyes; I not only understood, I slowly began to believe I might one day actually play jazz. Randy has published Metaphors For The Musician through Sher Music Company, and I would recommend it as a "must-have" book for any aspiring player of jazz music, on piano or on any instrument really. Randy has a gift for taking what appears to be complicated or mysterious and presenting it in such a way that it becomes not only understandable, but also doable.
Friday, April 7, 2006
Did a great gig at Sheba this past Tuesday. We had Rocky on sax, so I can now tell you that his name is Rocky Yela. He's a great addition to the lineup, he has a great sound, great feel and he really swings.
I also learned the full name of the drummer I mentioned previously. His name is Andrew Atkinson. If you are in the Miami-Dade area, watch out for his name. He is a really terrific drummer.
The website is driving me bananas today, but I'm in here trying my best to keep things up to date! Hope you keep coming back.
Friday, March 31, 2006
It’s been a busy/lazy winter. After the holiday season (I call it the “holy-daze”) I found myself with boxes full of Impromptus and nothing left to do but begin shamelessly promoting myself. I have never been comfortable doing that. Not only do I prefer to stay focused on improving my playing and getting recordings made, but I was raised in an environment where you don’t “blow your own horn.”
Many thanks to my buddy Anjul for constantly reminding me to get in here and update. And thanks to Anjul again for visiting regularly. I have no clue how the internet really works, but I hope that lots of clicking here makes me easier to find in the search engines. Try searching for “Hal Brooks musician” and I usually pop up one page one.
Thanks to YOU too for visiting. Word of mouth is still the best advertising, and the internet has made it possible for anyone’s words to reach the world. So I hope that you will tell others, send them a link, whatever, if you find something interesting here or if you have enjoyed Impromptus and think you know others who will. I’m only hoping to reach a level of success that will afford me a publicist; then I can abandon shameless self-promotion (n’yuk n’yuk).
Check the news to find out about The Hal Brooks Trio at Le Moulin du Grove in Coconut Grove. You might want to come check that out. The food is terrific! The trio is going strong, with Andres Roa on drums and the famous revolving bass players. We have Mike Bordelon whenever he's available, and if you haven't yet heard Mike, you are in for a treat, he's a fantastic musician. The trio format gives him lots of room to solo, and he really shines.
But wait! There's more! Mike, Andres and myself play at Sheba, a delightful Ethiopian restaurant in North Miami. On this gig Andres is the leader and we are called Kenaz Jazz Quartet, which also means (if you hadn't already guessed it) that we have a fourth musician on the date. We haven't yet settled on one, but recently we had tenor saxophonist Rocky and he was the real deal. Hopefully we will have him back. Also on that date, a drummer named Andrew who was TOTALLY happenin'. I need to get these guy's last names so you can check them out. Come back to this journal and check the news again real soon.