(1972) A Little Bit of Miles ***1/2

 

With: Mal Waldron (piano), Henk Haverhoek (bass), Pierre Courbois (drums)
Record date: February 9, 1972

Only a few days after the release of ‘Blues for Lady Day’ Mal made a live appearance at the Hot House in the Dutch city of Leiden. He was joined by two Dutch musicians from a bit different signature: Henk Haverhoek on bass and Pierre Courbois on drums. Haverhoek was more a mainstream kind of jazz guy playing with the likes of Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin and Art Taylor. Courbois was more free jazz oriented, know for records with musicians like Gunter Hampel, Peter Brotzmann and Willem Breuker.

I always wondered why the album got the title ‘A Little Bit of Miles’. For the same title song you’d probably say but then I wonder why that song got that name. It’s a very, very, very little Bit of Miles one could here on this record. In fact: it’s a typical Waldron album with typical Waldron compositions. It makes one think of the theme of ‘The Call’ a little bit sometimes. The title song is a nice up tempo kind of song with a bluesy feel and lots of the repetitive vamps he’s known for. As the music progresses the playing gets more and more intense. Haverhoek is playing really great bass lines, daring to leave his own comfort zones, yet he is a bit far out in the mix which makes it hard to really focus on what he’s doing. In his soloing you could hear it better and though not mind-blowing he plays really nice: leaving more traditional song structures and daring to actually tell something. Courbois is more in front of the mix but that’s not a bad thing as he really does a good job reacting on what Mal’s his doing. With Mal’s percussive style it sometimes almost sound like a drum battle between the two.

On side B there’s another lengthy composition: ‘Here, There and Everywhere’. It starts with lightly waltzing Monkish theme. Mal being backed up by Courbois’ cymbals. After that the solos start with the modal theme in the background, getting more swinging and leaving the theme of the song behind. So beautiful to hear how Mal’s hands also interact with each other: his left setting the beat and his right one reacting on it. Also nice to hear Haverhoek playing with repeating theme’s in his solo too, clearly inspired by Mal.

‘A Little Bit of Miles’ was released on Freedom records in 1974 in both Germany and Japan. The vinyl versions aren’t too hard to find. I have got the Japanese reissue from 1985 which sounds good: not a single pop or click. But as I stated before, Haverhoek is a bit too far up in the mix. I don’t have any comparison but I thinks that was a recording issue and probably every version has that same problem. For cd lovers: the Freedom cd version from Japan is pretty hard to find. Both of the songs here were released on the cd version of ‘Blues for Lady Day’. The music is also available on streaming services these days. Definitely worth checking out, but not necessarily essential.

(1972) Blues for Lady Day ***

 

With: Mal Waldron (piano)
Record date: February 5, 1972

1972 would become another very productive year for Mal, delivering multiple solo works and a few records with great groups. He still spend most of his time in Europe or in Japan. His first record of that year was recorded in Baarn, the Netherlands. It’s one of his multiple tributes to Lady Day who he accompanied till her death. When Billie died, Mal was devastated and he always kept her in a special place in his heart. He pad tribute with multiple records recorded in her honor. Not just songs, but full albums! ‘Blues for Lady Day’ was his second, after the previous record with Kimiko Kasai.

On ‘Blues for Lady Day’ he plays 9 jazz standards that are all more or less affiliated with Billie Holiday. Mal Waldron solo could be very, very interesting but also in some cases: a bit dull. This record is rated pretty high on websites like RYM and Allmusic but I personally do not really hear what all the fuzz is about. Mal plays 9 standards in a very decent way. Decent… no more, no less. There’s not that familiar tension in his playing, but it also lacks some emotional feel, which is weird because some of the songs should really have that feeling. It’s a nice listen and you wouldn’t piss anyone off playing it when you have visitors for a coffee but Mal made such better records. His soloing also sounds a bit uninspired like he just didn’t have his day.

Highlight of the album is probably ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’. Now, the original by Billie could almost make me cry, and Mal captures the right atmosphere here. It has that beautiful sadness over it. His handling of 'Strange Fruit' is also beautiful with the dark and low tones from his left hand. 

‘Blues for Lady Day’ was originally released on Black Lion, which means it is still widely available on second hand vinyl for a low price. You have a choice from 8 different kind of versions, also on labels affiliated with Black Lion like Arista, Freedom and Trio. The 1993 cd version, with different artwork, has a nice bonus for vinyl haters: it contains the whole session of ‘A Little Bit of Miles’ which was recorded after this one that same year. That one is pretty difficult to obtain on cd. Also, the music is available in high resolution files and trough multiple streaming sources. Give it a spin and see how you like it. To me, this is not an essential record.