Harold O’Neal’s Marvelous Fantasy

A few hundred years ago, classical pianists would impress audiences by improvising cadenzas in the middle of a concerto – riffing, we would say today. Now improvisation is firmly in the realm of jazz. But a new record called Marvelous Fantasy explores the connection between jazz and classical improvisation. It’s by the 30-year-old jazz pianist Harold O’Neal.
Not many people have a resume like O’Neal’s: the Kansas City native is a kickboxer, karate teacher, and breakdancer (he performed in a Jay-Z video) as well as a student of Romantic piano music. O’Neal got turned on to music as a kid watching the Donald & Daffy Duck dueling pianos scene in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. “They’re playing ‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.’ and I said ‘wow, that’s amazing, what is that? I want to learn that.'”
On his new record O’Neal looks to French impressionist composers like Maurice Ravel. “My gut was saying take these classical pieces that I like and just analyze them – harmonically, structurally, the mechanics of what they’re doing technically and break it down and turn it into a drill,” he explains to Kurt Andersen. “Basically I run the drill enough until it becomes second nature and I just throw it in the bag of improvisation.”
  
Video: “Marvelous Fantasy”

  
Video: Harold O’Neal breakdances in the studio

  
Video: “The Lovers”