With: Steve Coleman (alto saxophone on #1 and #2, Joe Henderson (tenor saxophone on #9), Mal Waldron (piano), Reggie Workman (bass), Andrew Cyrille (drums), Jeanne Lee (vocal on #1,#2,#10), Abbey Lincoln (vocals on #5 and #7)
Record date: August 15 & 16, 1997
Living in Brussels, Belgium, Mal felt completely free. Most people in his neighborhood had no idea who he was or who he had played with. They knew him as that kind gentleman from around the block with his warm and deep voice. But Mal's birthday never went by without notice. In 1997 he was to become 72 years old and like the years before his birthday was celebrated in a big way. Some of his old contemporaries flew over (or went by train like Jeanne Lee) to play and record with him. On his birthday, they performed a concert in Antwerp with an allstar line-up. It was recorded by Belgian radio but I have never found any recordings of it unfortunately. But in the same week they also went into the studios to record for RCA Victor.
The results are a bit mixed in my opinion. Line-ups like this always make high expectations. And the record doesn't fully meet up to that expectation to be honest. It has a few very good moments but mostly just ok moments. The repertoire is made up mostly by real 'Mal classics' like 'Soul Eyes', 'The Git Go', 'Judy' and 'Straight Ahead'.
The songs with Jeanne Lee are just lovely. Her warm, gentle singing is suited so incredibly well for a classic like 'Soul Eyes'. It gives such a nice warm feeling to this whole record. Also she has incredible singing technique and is capable of experimenting with her voice without getting freaky. She's probably the most accesible experimental jazz singer I know. Steve Coleman has a forceful addition to 'Judy' but fails to impress on the song that was made so famous by John Coltrane. It perhaps has something to do with the fact that Coleman recorded his attributions later. For it's mostly chemistry that is missing here.
Then there's Abbey Lincoln with whom Mal has had a long association. Of course she recorded with Mal Waldron: for example the 'Straight Ahead' album with people like Coleman Hawkins, Booker Little, Julian Priester and Max Roach. But she was also the wife of Max Roach with which Mal has recorded even more. Abbey sounds a bit as if she's struggling to get to the notes here and there on the classic 'Straight Ahead'. But this could also be me giving her a hard time as I am (probably a bit too much) critical of singers. Her contributions on 'God Bless The Child' sound much better and she nails it without any problems.
The very best track of this album is the one with Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone. 'The Git Go' is really the kind of track you whished of that the whole album sounded like that. It has that brooding and dark energy, the well known tension and some awesome horn blowing by Joe Henderson. Such unfortunate he only contributed to only one song.
This is in no way a bad album, not at all. But being a vocal album mostly, to me it's not very appealing. Jeanne Lee makes up a lot for it but Lincoln fails to get me here. The solo tracks are fine but not really anything special. This could have been more than such an average record. It's pretty easy to get on the internet these. For this is Mal's last real group recording and the big names playing here this is mostly essential from a historical point of view. And I am pretty sure that vocal jazz lovers will be much pleased with it. Worth having.
No comments:
Post a Comment