For those unaware, Brent Laidler attended Western Michigan University, majoring in Music Education with a minor in Composition. He also attended Red Wing Technical Institute for Band Instrument Repair, owns and operates Brent’s Bench, Inc. Band Instrument Repair Shop in Lafayette and has developed an extensive professional and collegiate faculty clientele during more than three decades of dedicated service to the industry.

His endorsements include Purdue Bands, Jacobs School of Music, DePauw, Butler, Ball State Universities and the Indianapolis Symphony as well as three different DCI Corps and the International Trumpet Guild.

Although Laidler has not done much touring, he keeps very busy locally as a jazz guitarist as well as a film/commercial composer, arranger, clinician, radio host, and successful small business owner. He has performed in jazz clubs. theaters, at private events, jazz festivals and high school and college musicals requiring multiple string instruments and facility in many different musical styles. Over the years he has also performed with the Lafayette Symphony in music ranging from Broadway show tunes to a Guns-n-Roses medley.

Hidden Gems is Laidler’s third project as a leader and follows No Matter Where Noir (2017) and Wouldn’t Be Here Without You (2022). Once again Laidler is accompanied by Mark Buselli on trumpet, Ned Boyd on saxophone and flute, Jamie Newman on organ, Scott Pazara on bass, and Richard “Sleepy” on drums.

They are all top Midwest-based musicians who appeared on Laidler’s previous releases and he himself calls them his dream team.

Laidler conceived the project during the Covid lockdown when he had a lot of free time. He has three dozen old, printed fake books, many more in PDF form, and at least 14,000 tunes on his phone. He spent his time sightreading fake books and listening to his large collection of recorded music. He soon discovered all the hidden gems that would appear on this record.

For Laider, making music has always been about making joyful noise and the joy that Laidler expresses via his music runs through every composition on Hidden Gems.

1. Haba Verde [5:58]
2. #5 Shomeda Way [5:05]
3. Gemani (Gem-a-nee) [5:16]
4. Ballad for B [6:21]
5. Riffy Business [7:35]
6. Somewhere in Central Park [4:49]
7. Evening Song [6:53]
8. Bop Like [6:17]
9. Petite Parasol [5:06]
10. Without a Tres [6:24]

With this latest project chock full of beautifully crafted harmonic progressions, pieces inspired by others, reimagined, rearranged, and even sometimes fused with others, this dutifully affluent new recording opens on the swimmingly impassioned Haba Verde and the vibrant #5 Shomeda Way, and then we get the robust Gemani (Gem-a-nee), the languishing Ballad for B, before the spirited, and brilliantly entitled Riffy Business is brought forth.

Up next is the finger-snapping foot-tapper Somewhere in Central Park which is itself followed seamlessly by the dutifully soulful, languishing Evening Song, and then we get the upbeat and playful Bop Like, the new set rounding out on the robustly-sculpted Petite Parasol, coming to a close on a sheer dulcet elegance that drives Without a Tres.

The compositions on Hidden Gems are not contrafacts. Rather they are adaptations with new melodies and chord reharmonizations based on the original forms. Laidler chose tunes that he felt were fun to improvise to, and his creations are significantly different from the originals. He cleverly named his versions in ways that harken back to the original inspirations.

Official Brent Laidler Hidden Gems Promo Video

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