(1987) David Friesen/Eddie Moore/Jim Pepper/Julian Priester/Mal Waldron - Remembering the Moment ***1/2

 

With: Jim Pepper (tenor saxophone), Julian Priester (trombone), Mal Waldron (piano), David Friesen (bass), Eddie Moore (drums)
Record date: June 25, 1987

In the summer of 1987, Mal was in the US again. In a small venue on the east coast in Portland he appeared next to Jim Pepper, David Friesen, Julian Priester and Eddie Moore for club gig that was recorded. Big names! All experienced musicians that were well established in the jazz scene. And also all names that weren’t exactly known for only playing straightahead jazz. 

This clearly is a club date and has a real jam session feel. The guys play a jazz standard and than one starts his solo. Then there’s someone else playing a solo, and then follows another one. That really is the concept of the album. They probably didn’t have much time to rehearse and choose a safe route. Nothing wrong with that but it does result in quite predictable music. Most of the soloing is also within the safe zones of jazz. Mal has the opportunity to show he does have a hell of a technique on ‘Autumn Leaves’, playing way more notes than he used to do. And also Jim Pepper, who Mal was to play with lots of times from now on, has a formidable technique. He has a very solid and tough tone yet he sounds very pleasant and accessible. Even the few overblown notes he perform does not really sound out there. Friesen swings hard all trough. And Priester… well he sounds like could have play more and better if the music was a little more challenging. Best song of the album is the up-tempo version of Miles’ All Blues. It swings very, very hard and every solo played just sounds excellent. Some great playing by all.

So a group with much potential that play an ok but not very impressing set. This Soul Note release, which is cd only, is still pretty easy to obtain online. Be careful out there for CD-R’s or so called Amazon on demand releases. There are pretty many of them circulating these days, especially from labels like Soul Note. It’s fully legal but you get a CD-R mostly for the same price as a regular cd. And not all sources are that clear of what they are selling to you. For some very vague reason this is the only Mal Waldron session that was not included in one of the Soul Note boxes…. So even when you own both of them, you still miss this one. You could live without it, but it’s some pretty solid music.