Friday, December 25, 2020

About this blog

 



In honor of one of the best and most original piano players in jazz: Mal Waldron.

Welcome to my blog on Mal Waldron. I love jazz music and I love a good pianist but to me there is nobody in the world like Mal. His timing, his approach, his sense for dark and deep lyricism, his percussive attack on the keys: nobody sounds like Mal. The first record I heard by him was on Enja: One-Upmanship. I had never heard such a thing before. The compositions and the atmosphere but also the enormous chemistry with Steve Lacy just stunned me. After that experience he managed to stun me time after time, in the way like Coltrane stunned me hearing his records for the first time. You have to have that click with his sound but when it’s there, there’s no pianist like him. Not long after obtaining quite a few records I decided I wanted to complete his discography: his works as a leader troughout his life, and also all his appearances as co-leader and sideman after 1964. It was quite difficult to obtain some of the records. Lots of stuff is OPP (almost everything), lots of stuff is rare and released in Japan only. But this autumn I finished this project.

I will write this blog, reviewing all of his work from 1964 till his death in chronological order. I chose specifically for that year as that year was a turning point in his life and musical career. In 1963, Mal suffered his infamous breakdown. He froze on stage and was according to himself high on heroin. He was hospitalized that same year and fortunately kicked the habit. But he had to relearn al off his skills again, partly by listening to his own old recordings. The Mal after that crucial year was a whole different than the Mal before. It was in the coming years that he developed his definitive sound.

I will start with reviewing all of the records that has Mal as a leader or as a co-leader from 1964 until his death in 2002. After that I will also review his works as sideman for for example Dusko Guykovich, Nathan Davis, Benny Bailey, Klaus Weiss and of course his works with Embryo. Mal’s output was quite impressive so there are a lot of reviews to write. For me, Mal is a musical God but not God himself. Not every album he made was a 5 star album. I try to stay critical and give my own honest opinion. That also means that some albums are not rated very high. Music is a subjective matter. Feel free to disagree in the comments, your opinion is just as much worth as mine. Music is also an emotional matter, so please keep it civilized! And please forgive me when my English sounds a bit funny. As a Dutchman I can save myself but of course I am no native speaker. So expect some Louis van Gaal like statements (soccer fans know what I am talking about),

Mal's discography is huge and websites like Allmusic and RYM but also books like the Penguin Guide To Jazz mostly pay attention to the usual suspects. And what they say, well I do not always agree with it. I can imagine one doesn't know where to begin with his less known works. What I hope is that you feel inspired to spin some more Mal and buy some of his records. I mostly hope to be a guide in his enormous discography that contains some more known classics but also some unknown and highly underrated albums.


19 comments:

  1. Thank you for your fantastic Mal blog, been enjoying the reviews for weeks. I've always listened to Mal's more "obvious" releases, but only got more deeply into his discography in recent months - coincidentally to discovering this blog. I also agree with many of your reviews, my favourite Mal records so far are Number Nineteen and the Dreher concert with Steve Lacy, both which I got vinyl copies of instantly after listening. But there are many gems to be discovered. Love that you're doing all of his sideman projects now, too, enjoyed the Embryo review today.
    As a little thank you, here are some flac uploads of Mal concert bootlegs you might or might not yet have:
    Mal & Archie Shepp, Detroit 1981: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8py4pxy5v12v9ek/Waldron-Shepp_1981-09-07_Detroit.rar/file
    Mal, Steve Lacy, Manfred Schoof, etc al, Berlin Jazztage & Freiburg 1975 https://www.mediafire.com/file/t4lthnptun2h84y/MalFreiburgBerlin.rar/file
    Mal's 1997 all star birthday concert at Middelheim, Antwerp (the radio one, not the released "Soul Eyes", but same line-up) https://www.mediafire.com/file/wnsa8bli2fghgsy/Mal_Waldron_-_Antwerpen_16-08-1997.zip/file

    Keep up the good work and thanks again!

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    1. Hi there honicz,

      First of all, thanks for all the kind words. I am glad to hear that i am able to inspire others in their journey exploring Mal's records! Also nice to see we have a similarity in taste.

      Second of all: thanks for the FLAC files! I did already had the stuff with Shepp and the live works with Lacy. But I was looking for years for that birthday concert! So thank you so much!

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  2. Thank you! As a huge fan of Mr. Waldron, this site is indispensable and a very proper dedication to the appreciation of his music and abilities.

    Thank you again for your efforts in making this available to everyone.

    Enjoy the music ��

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    1. Thank you for all your kind words! Sorry for the late reply.

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    1. Thank you for reading! Hope you keep enjoying it :)

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  5. Many, many thanks for that amazing labour of love.
    I am a longtime fan of Mal's music and was fortunate enough to hear him and Lacy together not long before either passed away, a memory I'll cherish forever. He is one of the few people, along with Monk, Dolphy, Lacy, Ornette and Jimmy Giuffre, whose music has saved my life.

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  6. Thanks also for pointing the reader towards less obvious Mal releases. I have loved the ENJAs, HAT HUTs and SOUL NOTEs for years but there is so much more out there. It's a shame some of it is so hard to get and/or so expensive…

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    1. Thank you for reading and your friendly words! It is indeed hard to find these records but the journey is well worth it. I think it's ridiculous that Mal's music is not reissued in any way last years (except Free at Last) and that there are no new releases. I am pretty sure theres a market for it.

      Anyway, I hope my blog could be of use for you as a guide!

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  7. Good luck with the biography you're working on, I'm looking forward to reading it.

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  8. Dear buddy (I don´t think you have told us your name), I subscribe every sentence you´ve written here in your welcome introduction. It strikes me our resemblence. I did start as well with One Upmanship, my first Mal´s acquisition, however the first piece I ever listened to was All Alone, in a Verve label compilation Round Midnight Live that was around my grandparent´s house and that blew me away as only A Love Supreme did (my first Coltrane listening ever). From then on I had two absolute passions in Jazz, Waldron and Coltrane. Nobody comes close to any of them. Thanks a lot for this blog I have been enjoying it very much in the last hours, I have just discovered it, but I did not want to keep enjoying it without sending you some lines of most gratitude. Much appreciated. Alf.

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    1. Thanks a lot! Hope it could be of help in finding new music by Mal. I am glad to hear you enjoy his music just as much as I do!

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    2. Also fun to read you share my second musical passion as well: Coltrane. To me there are two jazz Gods: Mal and Coltrane :)

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  10. Great job on this Mal Waldron blog. He's my favorite jazzer of all-time. Agree about Tom Mega it's a terrible album but had to hear it anyway since Mal plays on it. Wish for more information about the Time Warp or "Extrasensuel Interaction" series of recordings with Christian Burchard that appear to be available only on streaming services.

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    1. Thanks Michael! His works with Burchard are mostly very interesting and you made me aware of some recordings I did not know yet, thanks!

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  11. Thank you for this wonderful blog! I can't believe it's taken me so long to find you. I love Mal's music and was lucky enough to see him a couple of times - in 1981 in a duo with Steve Lacy in Belgium, and in the US with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille in 1999.

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    1. Thanks Jean! Glad to hear you enjoy the blog. Hope it helps you to explore his music even more!

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