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| Hal Gaylor To Receive The Annual Lifetime Achievement Award Hal Gaylor, an accomplished bass player, and local resident will receive the first annual Lifetime Achievement Award presented by The Hudson Valley Jazz Festival. Hal has been living with hearing loss after a wonderful career in jazz. He evolved as an artist who's work has been shown locally . The ceremony will take place Sunday Aug. 19 at The Lycian Theatre in Sugar Loaf between jazz festival performances. The evening begins at 7 PM with The Andy Ezrin Group featuring drummer Adam Nussbaum. Andy, is keyboardist for Chris Botti. After their set will be The Rick Savage Group featuring Don Braden and drumming legend Eliot Zigmund. About Hal Gaylor Long considered one of the finest bass players in jazz, Hal Gaylor is also a painter, architect, and licensed hypnotherapist. He has worked with performers as disparate as Tony Bennett and Ornette Coleman. His father and grandfather were both violinists, and Hal - born Harold Walden Gaylor in Montreal, Canada, on July 9, 1929 - began to play clarinet at the age of nine. At first he taught himself, with help from his father on music theory. He gained his first practical playing experience with his high school band. The school was Montreal High, and fellow students included Oscar Peterson and Maynard Ferguson. In 1948, his father suffered a heart attack and asked Hal to sub for him on bass. Hal had limited knowledge of the instrument, but he got through the job without complaint from the other musicians. But his interest in the bass had become whetted. He left school for two years to work as an airline mechanic, then enrolled at McGillUniversity, where he studied art and music, including clarinet under Andre Moretti. He was asked to play bass in the school orchestra and henceforth concentrated on that instrument. During that period, Montreal was a thriving Mecca of music and entertainment and when such performers as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, and Edith Piaf came to town, Hal was the bassist of choice for their engagements. In 1953, he joined pianist Maury Kaye for the opening of the El Morocco, a supper club with a first rate show band backing the best acts of the time. He was a part of the Canadian All Stars, a quintet made up of winners of a jazz poll conducted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Besides Gaylor, the group included Al Baculis on clarinet, Gordie Fleming on accordion, Yvan Landry on piano and Billy Graham on drums. Another of Hal's associates was pianist Paul Bley, and when Bley invited Charlie Parker to play a concert in Montreal, Hal was a bassist on the engagement. Tapes of that performance became CD titledCharlie Parker Montreal 1953. In 1955, Hal married dancer Evelyn Benz of New York. In 1956, they moved to New York City. While living and working in NYC, Hal worked with Paul Bley in a trio that included Lennie McBrown on drums. They toured the Midwest in a series of concerts ending up in Los Angeles. There Hal met and worked with pianist Walter Norris and Billy Higgins in a trio. This group was frequently augmented by saxophonist Ornette Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry. In 1957, Gaylor replaced bassist Red Mitchell in the Chico Hamilton Quintet. He toured and recorded with Hamilton until 1960. During his tenure with that group, he also recorded two albums for Decca Records with guitarists John Pisano and Billy Bean. Then Hal returned to New York, where he played in the Clark Terry big band and quartet, the Billy May band, saxophonist Stan Getz, Pianist Bill Evans, and Kai Winding's Trombone Panorama, among others. When Walter Norris moved to new York, he, Gaylor and guitarist Billy Bean formed a group called simply The Trio. Although they worked infrequently and recorded only one album, that album - on Riverside - has a cult status as a classic. All three musicians and their families lived together in a log house on Greenwood Lake, NY, about fifty miles north of New York City. Meanwhile, Hal was taking gigs on the road with Lena Horne, Mel Torme, Anita O'Day, and Dick Haymes. In 1961, Hal joined Ralph Sharon and Billy Exiner in the rhythm section that played for Tony Bennett. This was to prove to be one of the most rewarding, and exciting, periods of his career, in part because of his respect for Bennett as an artist and musician, and in part because they worked with great bands, including those of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Woody Herman. The trio worked extensively with Bennett, including one album in which they were the singer's only backing. After six years on the road, with long periods away from his wife and family, Hal left to pursue work in the studios and clubs in the New York area. He added electric bass to his musical skills, and played in fusion groups with Jeremy Steig, Mike Mainieri, Donald McDonald ands Joe Beck. In 1971 he toured Europe with the Benny Goodman Septet. The group is heard on a live recording made in Copenhagen on the London label. In 1972, Hal contracted a virus that had one devastating after-effect: it destroyed the hearing in his right ear. Unable to hear the full spectrum of sound, he decided that music was no longer a practical career. Always a practicing architect, He designed and built his home atop amountainat Greenwood Lake. his father-in-law, Frank Benz, owned a small resort hotel called the Linden House. After it burned down, Hal designed and built a new one that included a small theater. For several seasons it presented Broadway shows under the direction of James Sisco. For the past several years Hal has begun to utilize his artistic talents in drafting and architecture to develop his drawing and painting abilities. His love of jazz and the musicians he has played with inspired him to create the portraits you see here. write your comments about the article :: © 2012 Jazz News :: home page |