With: Mal Waldron (piano)
Recorded on: February 7, 1970
During that first trip to Japan, Mal also recorded his first solo piano effort since the ‘All Alone’ album on GTA. Quite contrary to that album, and to many of his excellent solo outings after, ‘Tokyo Reverie’ isn’t very interesting. The quality in most of his solo music is the tension, climaxes and emotional feeling all through the music. ‘Tokyo Reverie’ lacks those ingredients. Every song was inspired by his stay in Japan. One would think it would result in more inspired music but that is not the case unfortunately. Most of the songs don’t really get anywhere. Absolute highlight is the beautiful ‘Sayonara’ which is kind of based on eastern melodies. And when I would compose a ‘best of’, that song would be selected by me. The album does contain a classic Mal composition also: Blood and Guts in it’s second appearance. But the live version on the Futura live album from only 3 months later is definitely more interesting.
Mal never plays bad but this is one you could skip without missing something big. Still, if you are a big Mal fan, do not hesitate. The album was released on vinyl only, and only in 1970 as an original and as a promo. It’s not very rare and mostly goes for around 30 euros. The gatefold is beautiful and the sound quality is excellent.
No comments:
Post a Comment