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Mal Waldron

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Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron in 1987
Mal Waldron in 1987
Background information
Birth nameMalcolm Earl Waldron
Born(1925-08-16)August 16, 1925
OriginNew York City, New York, United States
DiedDecember 2, 2002(2002-12-02) (aged 77)
Brussels, Belgium
GenresModal jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Hard bop
Post bop
Occupation(s)Pianist, composer
Instrument(s)Piano
Years activeEarly 1950s–2002
LabelsPrestige, New Jazz, Enja, ECM, RCA Victor (Japan), Soul Note

Malcolm Earl Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002)[1] was an American jazz pianist and composer, born in New York City.

Like his contemporaries, Waldron's roots lay chiefly in the hard bop and post-bop genres of the New York club scene of the 1950s, but with time he gravitated more towards free jazz and composition. He is known for his dissonant chord voicings and distinctive playing style, which was originally inspired by Thelonious Monk.

Biography

After obtaining a B.A. in music from Queen's College, New York, he worked in New York City in the early 1950s with Ike Quebec, "Big Nick" Nicholas, and rhythm and blues groups. He worked frequently with Charles Mingus from 1954 to 1956 and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from 1957 until her death in 1959. He also supervised recording sessions for Prestige Records, for which he provided arrangements and compositions of which arguably his most famous, "Soul Eyes", became a widely recorded jazz standard. After Holiday's death he chiefly led his own groups.

Waldron had a unique yet instantly recognizable playing style. He finessed thick and rich chords in the lower bass register; although sometimes compared to Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk for his dissonant voicing, his emphasis on weight, texture and frequent repetition of a single and simple motif as opposed to linear and melodic improvisation gave a heavy and melancholic color to his sound. Considered somewhat of an avant-gardist, his solo style - which often produced more of a wall of sound than a line of melody - was in stark contrast to more traditional and technical players of his time. Waldron became something of an unsung legend for his uncanny ability to play very slow, deep and even disturbing ballads bordering on sorrow, while he himself would sit perfectly motionless, stoic and stolid at the piano, his face devoid of all emotion.

Besides performing, he composed for films (The Cool World, Three Rooms in Manhattan and Sweet Love, Bitter), theater, and ballet. In 1963 he had a major nervous breakdown brought on by exhaustion and a heroin overdose, and had to re-learn his skills, apparently by listening to his own records. Waldron's playing style re-emerged more brooding, starker and percussive, combining bebop and avant-garde melodies, and at times weaving repetitive melodic motifs using just a few notes over a drone-like accompaniment figure.

After working on a film score in Europe he moved there permanently in 1965 initially living in Munich, Germany and in his last years he was based in Brussels, Belgium. He performed and recorded extensively throughout Europe and Japan in his later decades, regularly returning to the United States for bookings. His 1969 album, Free at Last, was the first ever release on the ECM label. In 1973, he collaborated with the German avant-rock band Embryo on an album of four somber, laid-back instrumentals titled Rocksession (released on the German label Brain Metronome records).

Through the 1980s and 1990s he worked in various settings with Steve Lacy, notably in soprano-piano duets playing their own compositions as well as Monk's. After some years of indifferent health, Waldron was diagnosed with cancer in 2002. He continued to perform until his death on December 2, 2002, in Brussels.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Gene Ammons

With Benny Bailey

  • Soul Eyes (MPS, 1968)

With Kenny Burrell

With Roy Burrowes

  • Live at the Dreher (Marge, 1980)

With Ron Carter

  • Where? (Prestige, 1961)

With Teddy Charles

With John Coltrane

With Nathan Davis

  • Jazz Concert in a Benedictine Monastery (Edici, 1969)

With Eric Dolphy

With Ray Draper

With Johnny Dyani

  • Some Jive Ass Boer (Jazz Unité, 1981)

With Embryo

  • Steig aus (Brain, 1970)
  • Rocksession (Brain, 1971)
  • Turn Peace (Schneeball, 1989)
  • 40 (Trikont, 2010)

With Duško Gojković

  • Swinging Macedonia (Philips, 1966)

With Bennie Green

With Terumasa Hino

  • Reminiscent Suite (Victor (Japan), 1972)

With Billie Holiday

With Etta Jones

  • So Warm (Prestige, 1961)

With Thad Jones

With Kimiko Kasai

  • One for Lady (JVC/Victor (Japan), 1971)

With Steve Lacy

With Abbey Lincoln

With Teo Macero

  • Teo Macero with the Prestige Jazz Quartet (Prestige, 1957)
  • Something New, Something Blue with Manny Albam (Columbia, 1959)

With Jackie McLean

With Charles Mingus

With The Prestige All Stars

With Paul Quinichette

  • On the Sunny Side (Prestige, 1957)

With Max Roach

With Klaus Weiss

  • Childs Prayer (EMI/Electrola, 1978)
  • On Tour (Calig, 1979)

With Phil Woods

With Eldee Young

  • Eldee Young and Company (Argo, 1961)

With Webster Young

  • For Lady (Prestige, 1957)

With Earl Zindars/Armando Peraza

  • The Soul of Jazz Percussion (Warwick, 1960)

As composer

References

  1. ^ Allmusic biography

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