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Galper was often regarded as an underrated master of his craft.
(Photo: Courtesy halgalper.com)Hal Galper, a pianist, composer and arranger who enjoyed a substantial performing career but made perhaps a deeper contribution as a jazz educator, died July 18 in Cochecton, New York. He was 87.
His death was announced on social media by his longtime friend and sometime bassist Todd Coolman. Cause of death was not disclosed.
A native of Salem, Massachusetts, Galper was educated at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and began his performing career in that city before moving to New York in 1963 and playing long stints with Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods. He recorded as a leader throughout the 1970s and ’80s but didn’t focus on a bandleading career until the 1990s. As such, Galper was often regarded as an underrated master of his craft (a label which with the pianist himself concurred).
He was not, however, underrated as an educator. Galper was a charter faculty member of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music when it began in 1986, and also served for many years on the faculty of SUNY-Purchase until his retirement in 2014. He wrote two instructional books: Forward Motion: From Bach to Bebop–A Corrective Approach to Jazz Phrasing (2003) and The Touring Musician: A Small-Business Approach to Booking Your Band on the Road (2007).
In more recent years, Galper was prolific in his use of social media as a venue for jazz education. He made frequent posts on Facebook and videos on YouTube that dealt with the same subjects — from theory to pedagogy to anecdotes that imparted the wisdom he’d learned on the road and from his elders.
Countless musicians regarded Galper as not just a colleague but a friend and mentor. “One of the best teachers I’ve ever had,” wrote guitarist Yotam Silberstein on Facebook. “Thank you for all the knowledge.”
“Hal Galper was not just a remarkable musician — he was a true musical philosopher, a rhythmic innovator, a fearless improviser and an inspiring educator,” wrote Ukrainian alto saxophonist Robert Anchipolovsky, a former student of Galper’s at the New School. “He left behind a powerful legacy — not only through his recordings but through the generations of students he encouraged to search for their own voice.”
Often remarked on for his warmth, humor, depth and generosity, Galper was also known to have profound streaks of toughness and cynicism. Coolman related a story on his Substack in which Galper became disgusted with the Fender Rhodes that had kept his career afloat in the 1970s: he “had decided never to play it again and threw his into the East River in New York City,” Coolman regaled. “Knowing Hal, that was likely true.”
Harold Galper was April 18, 1938, in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Irving Galper, a Polish immigrant and greengrocer, and Pearl Galper, a housewife. He grew up taking classical piano lessons, intending to pursue it as a career when he entered Berklee in 1955; during his college years, however, Galper fell in love with jazz and reoriented his playing in that direction. He became house pianist at the Stable, where he met Boston musicians Sam Rivers and Jaki Byard, among others.
On the advice of Byard, Galper tried his luck in New York, where he initially floundered, moving back to Boston. He landed a pickup gig with Baker at Boston’s Jazz Workshop, which led to him going on the road with the trumpeter and making his first recording: Baker’s The Most Important Jazz Album Of 1964–65. He also gained a reputation for accompanying singers, notably Chris Connor, Anita O’Day and Joe Williams.
Galper spent much of the 1970s working with Adderley and Randy and Michael Brecker, the latter two with whom he made his recording debut as a leader, The Guerilla Band, in 1971. He recorded fairly regularly throughout the 1970s, although many of those albums went unreleased for many years afterwards — meaning that Galper was underexposed in the marketplace relative to his recorded output.
After spending the 1980s touring with Woods, Galper left the saxophonist to form a trio with Coolman and drummer Steve Ellington. At that time, he became a full-time bandleader — or, as he put it, “I gave in and learned the business, booking my trio 24/10 for ten years.” The trio continued touring and recording into the 21st century in multiple iterations, the longest-lived of these featuring bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop (with whom Galper made his final recording, 2016’s Cubist, on Bishop’s Origin Records).
In his final years, Galper performed regularly in his upstate New York environs, especially with drummer Tyler Dempsey and bassist Tony Marino at Rafter’s Tavern near his home in Sullivan County. In November 2024 he announced that he would be taking a hiatus from performing in order to focus on writing.
Galper is survived by Lillyan Peditto, his partner of 40 years, and other family. DB
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
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