Pianosong

from Paul Gorman
"Paul Halley is a balladeer of songs without words. Equally at home with Gregorian chant, Jamaican dance, and the popular song, Paul is blessed with a unique gift for spontaneous composition. His music sounds original and native because it is so finely wrought - as from those earlier traditions, both classical and jazz, in which composition and improvisation are married in the sheer joy of music making. " - Paul Gorman

from Pulse 
"Halley is a piano/organ virtuoso, well schooled in jazz and classical music. He is able to seamlessly merge the exhilaration of music spontaneously improvised... with the aesthetic sense of carefully wrought form and structure. Halley has a strong sense of melody and harmony, a boundless range of technique and an irresistibly affirmative point of view. " - Lee Underwood

from Cincinnati Enquirer  
"The melodies he [Paul Halley] wrote for his solo piano/pipe organ LP, Pianosong, are so tuneful Barry Manilow would become an axe murderer just for the chance to say ‘I wrote them'".

from The Washington Post
"Halley’s mellifluous tone and subtle harmonic shifts sent many in the audience home in a state of musical rapture."
(Concert review)

from The Ottawa Citizen
"This is the music of warmth, serenity and great charm... Free-flowing, but thoughtful improvisations on lyrical, original themes"

from Amazon Reviews
"Paul Halley has two major feathers in his cap. The first is over a decade as the music director for The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. As one would expect from the world's largest gothic cathedral, the requirements for the position are exhaustive. Halley was the driving factor for broadening the church's music program from staunchly classical to include contemporary works.

Halley's second credential is his membership in The Paul Winter Consort for the next 18 years. Winter's standards are notoriously high, with a heavy emphasis on both teamwork and improvisation, and Halley fit right in. Pianosong is from early in that period (1986) - an album by an already well-established artist who clearly demonstrated his capabilities as both an instrumentalist and a composer.

Halley's music (on this album) is on the soft jazz side of new age. These pieces are highly melodic - songs written for the piano. Technical proficiency is certainly not absent, but it isn't the core focus. He stays within warm tonalities making this a comfortable album that immediately fits like an old, well-made shoe. This makes the album a great introduction to the genre, something that bears up under the wear and tear of repeated listening."
- Mark Ruby