(1980) Solo Piano: Live in Vancouver 1980 ***

 

With: Mal Waldron (piano solo)
Record date: somewhere in 1980

This is the most recent release of ‘new’ music by Mal Waldron. A solo outing far from his home in Munich, at the west coast of Canada in Vancouver. Mal probably made a North American tour that year. It was from this time he would visit the USA more often than he did before.

So what to think about this record? It is ok. The opening improvisation really sounds like Mal improvising around a spontaneously made up melody and it works out well. It starts more classical oriented then slowly merging into a more bluesy sound. The following Waltz and Shout is indeed waltzing around with lots of repetitive patterns in his playing. A happy melody but nothing really special. The following untitled blues is a pretty long suite where all kinds of themes are passing by. They got a deep bluesy feel in common. It’s pretty relaxing music and Mal takes his time to improvise and tell his stories. The theme of ‘Thoughtful’ passes by at around 9 minutes, there’s a slight hint of It Aint Necissarly So. It’s the first time by the way I can hear him mumble while playing. But fortunately not as loud as for example Keith Jarrett. Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell and Abdullah Ibrahim also do that but it never bothers me. One could here the suite merging into Thelonious Monk’s Ephistrophy and it’s a real bummer it’s cut off. Monk was a prominent influence on Waldron’s playing but he did not play a single tune by him between 1966 and 1980. Of course later he would, with Lacy most prominently. But it would have been interesting to hear his solo treatment in 1980.

The closing three standards including his own Fire Waltz are all ok but nothing special there.
Of course this is not a stone cold classic, but it’s a nice way of hearing Mal playing solo in these years when a new change of style was yet to come. He would leave the more free path he had chosen and went back to standards and blues for a while. With a few exceptions of course, it depended on who he played with. With Dyani and Lacy for example he still managed to play outside a bit, but there is definitely a pattern visible of gripping back on more traditional jazz and improvisation.

This is a download only. The label ‘Condition West’ asks 4.50 euros for a download which is more than reasonable. They warn for bad recording quality and indeed it’s not great but it is far from unlistenable. There’s a slight hiss in the background and the piano does not sound very well. Also, some of the songs are cut off which is the biggest downside of it. Part from that it’s pretty much ok. Not essential but for less than 5 euros, you could give it a try.