Record date: January 28 & 29, 2002
Mal did save some of his best music for his last recordings. 2002 was the year this humble jazz giant left our earth. But not before he left us with two more fantastic records. This first one was recorded in France and reunited Mal for another and unfortanely last time with his lifelong friend and associate Steve Lacy. Also present is the excellent French jazz bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel who is of course mostly known for his association with Lacy. The music presented here is somewhere in between jazz, improvised music and classical music. It’s far from contemporary kind of jazz and it show’s that even in 2002, Mal was still able to innovate and move in other directions. There’s this very dark and moody atmosphere trough the whole album and an indescribable sadness that is also sometimes present on his duet with Shepp from the very same year.
The album starts with one his most beautiful interpretations of his own composition All Alone. While the theme remains the same, the variations in between are all new and different. And part from that it just remains a landmark in Mal Waldron’s compositional career. It’s one of his saddest songs with incredible emotional layers in it that just go right trough the bone. Melodically or technically the whole composition is not a very difficult one. It’s just that every note is in exactly the right place. All Alone flows over perfectly into ‘Rites of Initation’ where Mal is joined by Avenel on bass. It all starts of as a conversation between them with Mal saying something with his hard and dark lower clusters in the lower regions of the piano. Avenel responds in the same registers of his bass. As the song progresses the music gets less structured and more free. It’s probably Mal’s most free playing in his later years. After reaching a climax things get more eased up again.
Lacy makes his first appearance on the romantic waltzing ‘You’ which was written by Mal. Mal and Avanel set a beautifully flowing waltzing line for Lacy to improvise on. Lacy sticks to the regular registers of his instruments showing he fully understands the directions Mal wants to go with it. Mal’s own solo is one of beautiful simplicity with carefully chosen loops en motifs. His playing still sound very secure. The ‘Blues for JJ’s Bass’ is a nice possibility for Avenel to show off his excellent bass playing skills. Excellent technique, creative both rhythmically as melodically his sound really adds a lot to this record. Then in comes Mal with some bluesy repetitive playing. With Avenels tight playing in the background he swings like hell.
There’s also a revisit of the classic ‘Seagulls of Kristiansand’ and this version is just another masterpiece in a different setting. Mal duels with Avenel’s bass, with Avenel picking up his bow sometimes imitating sounds by seagull’s than picking his bass again constantly responding to Mal’s warm legato notes. I only wish Lacy would have joined in here. Mal goes solo on ‘In the Land of Clusters’ where his playing is again more in a free kind of form. He regularly falls back on more recognizable patterns then getting back to more free improvisation making extensive use of dissonance and clusters (hence the title). And oh yeah Mal closes this recording session with a tearjerking and very definitive version of his own classic Soul Eyes. After introducing the theme with his own fluent playing, in comes a very playful Avenel who just dances around the sweet chords coming from Mal’s piano. And yes thank God there’s Lacy with a very modest but oh so beautiful contribution to it. I could hardly believe these were their last words on record together. The end of such a beautiful companionship.
This record is easy to obtain on websites like Discogs for very friendly prices. It’s essential late Mal. It has this weird feeling trough it. A kind of definitive feeling. Like Mal felt he would not be longer on this earth. There are no liner notes but only some words by Mal himself. They probably say it all…
‘Measured against eternity,
our life span is very short,
so I am extremely happy
to have this record as a high point of mine’ - Mal Waldron
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