(1970) The Opening ****1/2

 

With: Mal Waldron (solo piano)
Record date: November 19th, 1970

In November 1970, Mal returned to the American Center for Students and Arts and gave another concert for a small crowd. The concert was recorded again by the French Futura label.

This is the very first Mal solo record where he just only hits the right notes. Its dark, moody, angry, gentle and very intimate. Where ‘Tokyo Reverie’ did not really go anywhere, and All Alone was just a beautiful starting point, The Opening has this almost indescribable dark atmosphere. Music to listen to, when you’re alone in a dark room with nothing else on your mind. And also the first solo effort where the influence of French composers like Satie or Debussy is really recognizable for the first time.

The opening ‘Right On’ is a waltz like theme. Mal had a fascination for that waltz rhythm and you could hear it in a lot of his originals. It was used as an opening theme for the French movie: ‘Georges Qui’? The movie is about the French (woman) writer and socials George Sand. The following ‘Of Panthers and Pigs’ is one of the highlights of the album. Of course, Free at Last was already referring to the civil rights movement earlier, but this album has more references to that movement and period. Of course the song is about the battle between the Black Panthers and the police forces in those days. The song expresses lots of emotions but sadness and anger are the most prominent. You could feel Mal’s emotions run trough the keys into the piano. The racist atmosphere was one of the reasons for Mal to leave the US for Europe. Both ‘Cry Out’ and ‘Die Fludel’ are fascinating compositions playing with timing, tempo and showing classical influences all trough. Listening to it on headphones makes you vanish into the music and forgetting you are actually on earth. The closing song is another interesting one: ‘Sieg Haile’. It was of course no reference to WWII, but a statement of honor for Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Another notice of black consciousness in Mal’s music. The composition would be recorded two more times after on the both fantastic albums: ‘Black Glory’ and ‘Moods’. It’s a fascinating composition with clear influences from march music and a beautiful floating and dreamy follow up theme.

‘The Opening’ is widely available on vinyl and also on cd. I’ve got the 2016 reissue on CD. Again a digipack with no liners whatsoever. Up till now, liner notes are in Italian, Japanese or non existent. Not very to easy to find yourself some background information of Mal in these years. Audio quality is slightly less than the ‘Blood and Guts’ album: there is a small hiss in the background. Still the music sounds detailed and well recorded. I don’t know how the vinyl sounds….