Jill Haley is a composer, an oboist, English horn player, and pianist. Many of her compositions are inspired by the beauty of our national parks located in the United States. Jill has been invited as “Artist in Residence” to more than ten national parks over the last decade. This has afforded her the opportunity to actually stay in a particular park while creating music about the park. Jill also
creates videos for many of her national park pieces, which can be viewed on her YouTube channel.
Many of Jill’s recordings been placed on numerous radio and music services, including several tracks on SiriusXM Radio. In the last few years, she has begun to have arrangements created for some of her national park music to be performed as a soloist with orchestras. Three national park Suites as well as a Suite of music drawn from her pandemic project, “Wrapped in Light,” have been performed by the York, PA Symphony, and Berks Sinfonietta.
In addition, Jill is also an artist on the Spotted Peccary record label creating ambient music with the founder of the label, Deborah Martin. The duo has released two recordings with a third planned for release in 2025.
In April 2021, Jill was invited to spend two weeks living in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park located in northeastern Arizona, about 50 miles from the New Mexico border on Interstate 40. This park is considered to have one of the largest concentrations of petrified wood in the world.
Just as a brief basis of knowledge, over eons, for various reasons, many of the tress from the forests there eventually turned into quartz crystals consisting of a spectrum of colors produced by the coalescing of iron, carbon, and manganese. Hence, petrified wood and “colors collide.”
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing several of Jill Haley’s national park recordings. I’m going to put this one at her best so far. Every track is truly gorgeous, melodic, and best of all, we are inspired through the music to want to know more about this intriguing park.
The 11-track album opens with “Crimson Bands,” which is soft, melodic, and flowing, sensitively played strings and piano giving us a solid entry into the rest of what’s here. The whole album has a soft, gentle, and tranquil feel with Jill performing on piano, English horn, oboe, and synthesizer, plus David Cullen, Jill’s husband, on guitar and bass, as well as Jill’s son, Graham Cullen, on cello, and Dawn King-Krown performing on flute.
Following is the ultra-tranquil, “Sepia Dunes,” with its mellow strings and beautiful, calming melody. “Hues of Nizhoni” refers to Nizhoni Point in the Painted Desert area of Petrified Forest National Park and is one of the several overlook points in this national park. Through the music, one can almost feel the ribbons of soft colors that make up this place. I would venture to say that like many places in Arizona, the way the light hits it at various times of the day probably make this whole place an ever-
changing vista. The flute performance here is great, meshing in an enjoyable, flowing way with English horn and piano.
Piano and gentle guitar “collide” together so beautifully on “Ecru Desert Sands.” It’s a perfect kind of delicate desert dance that we don’t want to end. Lower register piano chords and an engaging melody both add to the ambiance of “Crisp Desert Morn.” We can practically feel the clarity and bright energetics of this particular morning.
The title track perfectly captures the entire uplifting and upbeat vibes of the whole vicarious experience. Strings, piano, soft percussion, all blend together beautifully to give us a hopeful, optimistic outlook.
Extremely peaceful flute on “Earth Tones,” along with pretty piano and soft synth make this one a favorite. But very seriously, I can’t pick an ultimate favorite and wouldn’t even want to try. You will want to get the entire album for the full relaxation experience.
This absolutely gorgeous and magical album closes out with the peaceful “Agate House.” Agate house is a historic dwelling in the park that has been partially restored. The building is made entirely of petrified wood, which means it’s essentially all crystal. Talk about a crystal cave. . .the energy of the building must be amazing. Mello cello and piano weave together beautifully here and we are left with a sense of deep and lasting peace and, indeed, a longing to go explore this national park ourselves. Great job, Jill and company!
Broadcast and Media Promotion
Ed and Stacey Bonk lazzpromotions@lazzpromotions.com
