With: Mal Waldron (piano solo)
The interest in jazz seems to be rising last years or at least, and that's great news as well, remain stable. Low but stable. The whole vinyl revival thing might have somtehing to do with it with the big labels like Blue Note and Verve introducing their Classics, Tone Poet and Acoustic Sound Series. There's Pure Pleasure records shining light on the awesome Strata-East and Nimbus West catalogs. And the great one-man Paris based Sam records releasing unreleased stuff by underrated talents like Nathan Davis and Billy Harper. Horace Tapscott also seems to finally get the appreciaton and recognition he deserves. Oh well he deserves even more. As a Waldron fan I hoped the same would happen with the music of this underrated piano master. I know trough this blog and the internet there is a serious and pretty big fan base. Plus there is a serious ammount of great bootlegs circulating on the internet. But until october 2022, there was nothing released and Mal got ignored by every single music label. The latest release of interest was the duet with David Murray. There was the solo Vancouver stuff that was released online only but that one wasn't that interesting plus the sound quality was very poor. But hey let's forget about that because last summer I got this in my mail: the American Tomkins Square is about to release a 2cd solo Mal Waldron set: a previously unissued set of songs recorded live at the Grenoble jazz festival. Hooray for Mal!
So what is there to say about the music on this 2cd set? From a Mal solo record you could really expect everything. The studio solo albums are generally less interesting than the live ones and the live solo albums are generally very, very good. The 70's were also a very strong decade for Mal's music. So this 1978 solo live concert is exactly what you might expect: it's very, very good!
The almost 24 minute long opener is one of his most interesting solo pieces. It might as well been called: the Mal Waldron medley or Mal Waldron suite as it's really a musical summary of his own music. All kinds of Mal compositions pass by in 24 minutes of breathtaking piano soloing. The music moves from emotional bluesy ballad style playing to his brooding high tense vamping in the more intense parts. Then when the music is just about to hit it's absolute intense climax it fades again into a more gentle and warm ballad kind of playing. All the stuff is connected to each other in an impressive way with hints of classical composers like Satie and Debussy here and there. With it's minimalistic approach here and there this is really music to sit down for and just listen without doing anything else.
The two discs are fairly divided between originals and jazz standards. The jazz standards played here are all suited excellent for Mal's eased but deeply emotional piano playing style. 'You Don't Know What Love Is' of course reminds one of his years with Lady Day and he has played it a lot since her death. Yet every version is unique in it's own way. Mostly because you could still feel her spirit in Mal's own playing. The way he takes his time, creating space gives a unique look into his music.
The originals chosen are well known ones (Soul Eyes, Fire Waltz) and lesser known ones (Petit Gemeaux and Here There and Everywhere). Some of them have that hard hitting intense dark energy like Snake Out and Sieg Haile yet All Alone has that moody repetitive minimalistic approach that is so recognizable for some of his ballad work. Even though Mal is an excellent performer of standards, it's always on his own stuff where he sounds even better. It's where his soul truly reflect trough every aspect of the music.
It's also mentioned in the liner notes and this is exactly what makes Mal such a wonderful pianist. Mal really is just.... Mal. He has such a distinctive voice in jazz piano, one could identify him within seconds. Sure there are hints of jazz pianists like Bud Powell, Monk and Cecil Taylor and the obvious influence of classical composers like Erik Satie, but Mal really plays mostly like himself. You have to like that style but if you do you become addicted to that intense repetitive and deeply emotional vibe. Mal never tries to blow you away with technical abilities, fast loops or other tracks. He is one of the most sincere jazz musicians I know. He just takes a sit behind the piano, light his cigarettes and plays everything exactly as he feels it.
Then finally something about the packing: Tompkins Square did an awesome job. Unfortunately no vinyl version (yet) but the cd digipack looks very nice. The highly informative booklets contains beautiful photography and interesting essays/interviews by and with Matthew Shipp, Ran Blake and of course his daughter Mala Waldron. I only dislike the fact that the cd's are placed directly into the cardboard without protection. I know from experience that for instance with the cardboard sleeves from HatHut damage to the cd is easily done when you slip a cd into it and there's a small piece of dirt on the cd or in de cardboard. Part from that beautiful packaging and more important: the sound is really excellent. Gary Hobish did a tremendeous job.
Thanks to Zev Feldman and Josh Rosenthal this music is finally available for everyone. There should be way more Waldron reissues and releases out there but unfortunately as the liner notes truly state: Mal Waldron remains an underrated and underexposed musician. Hopefully this new release shines a little light one this unique pianist.
