(1972) Blues for Lady Day ***

 

With: Mal Waldron (piano)
Record date: February 5, 1972

1972 would become another very productive year for Mal, delivering multiple solo works and a few records with great groups. He still spend most of his time in Europe or in Japan. His first record of that year was recorded in Baarn, the Netherlands. It’s one of his multiple tributes to Lady Day who he accompanied till her death. When Billie died, Mal was devastated and he always kept her in a special place in his heart. He pad tribute with multiple records recorded in her honor. Not just songs, but full albums! ‘Blues for Lady Day’ was his second, after the previous record with Kimiko Kasai.

On ‘Blues for Lady Day’ he plays 9 jazz standards that are all more or less affiliated with Billie Holiday. Mal Waldron solo could be very, very interesting but also in some cases: a bit dull. This record is rated pretty high on websites like RYM and Allmusic but I personally do not really hear what all the fuzz is about. Mal plays 9 standards in a very decent way. Decent… no more, no less. There’s not that familiar tension in his playing, but it also lacks some emotional feel, which is weird because some of the songs should really have that feeling. It’s a nice listen and you wouldn’t piss anyone off playing it when you have visitors for a coffee but Mal made such better records. His soloing also sounds a bit uninspired like he just didn’t have his day.

Highlight of the album is probably ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’. Now, the original by Billie could almost make me cry, and Mal captures the right atmosphere here. It has that beautiful sadness over it. His handling of 'Strange Fruit' is also beautiful with the dark and low tones from his left hand. 

‘Blues for Lady Day’ was originally released on Black Lion, which means it is still widely available on second hand vinyl for a low price. You have a choice from 8 different kind of versions, also on labels affiliated with Black Lion like Arista, Freedom and Trio. The 1993 cd version, with different artwork, has a nice bonus for vinyl haters: it contains the whole session of ‘A Little Bit of Miles’ which was recorded after this one that same year. That one is pretty difficult to obtain on cd. Also, the music is available in high resolution files and trough multiple streaming sources. Give it a spin and see how you like it. To me, this is not an essential record.