(1966) Mal Waldron Trio ***1/2

 

Recording date: 30 and 31 May 1966
With: Mal Waldron (piano), Giovanni Tommaso (bass), Pepito Pignatelli (drums)

1966 seems to be the year of the definitive comeback of Mal after his infamous breakdown. For his second record date that year in Italy, Mal teams up with two Italian musicians: bassist Giovanni Tommaso and drummer Pepito Pignatelli. The latter seems to be fairly unknown and did not make many appearances after this recording. Tommaso is better known and played with the likes of Barney Kessel, Lee Konitz, Joe Albany and more Americans visiting Italy trough the years. He was mostly active within the Italian jazz scene itself.

About the music then. Mal seems to do one step back from his ‘All Alone’ record for GTA earlier that year. He sounds more like the Mal before 1963 and there’s a slight hint of Bud Powell here and there. His playing is quite relaxed and not out there. He’s clearly trying to find himself on these recordings in these years. Perhaps his companions were holding him back a bit but I would not dare to state that.

Overall the playing is nice and it’s lovely to listen too. Mal’s repetitive solo sound like he’s at ease doing what he’s doing. The atmosphere of his more dark and moody originals is already sounding on songs like Rosa and for Bob. Other’s like the starter Steady Bread or Maroc are heavily in the jazz tradition, but do have that Mal feeling and air. And on Theme de Coreurs he actually start showing what was about to come but misses the back by say a Jimmy Woode or Isla Eckinger. The repetitiveness in his compositions was one of the things that remained after his breakdown. Tomasso’s bass playing is good throughout an Pignatelli’s drum playing is supportive (yet not very shocking).

About the record itself: it was issued in 1966 by the Italian Karim label which went defunct that very year. The original issue seems to be very rare. According to the Discogs statistics there are 10 people who may praise themselves lucky with that original issue and the only one sold went for 200 euros. I myself got the seriE.WOC issue from 2014. seriE.WOC is a legit reissue label from Italy and they did a pretty good job. They produced an exact replica of the original including the funny gatefold style cover. The sound quality is what one might expect from a jazz record that was recorded in Italy during those days by a minor label. It is not great but definitely not bad either. Liner’s are in Italian and unfortunately that’s not my first language so not a lot of background info by me (sorry for that).

Not the most exciting and thrilling Mal record but essential if one wants to hear his early development after his breakdown into what he was to become in the late ’60’s and early 70’s.