Guitarist, composer, and arranger BRENT LAIDLER mined fake books going back as far as the 1920s to find music that he could reshape into hip compositions for his newest album, HIDDEN GEMS. Most of the original music he used as sources never became standards, even though some were written by well-known composers; nevertheless, he felt that many of the tunes had very well-crafted changes that were amenable to reworking in a more modern idiom.

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.

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.

For Laidler, 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.