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Mal Waldron


Peter Friedman

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2 hours ago, felser said:

I love 'The Quest'.  And that was on Prestige.   Why did Waldron record so little 1962-1968?

 

Yeah, he had his breakdown in 1963/1964. Moved to Europe then: Italy first and later Germany (Koln and Munich). He had a lot of gigs in those years but not a lot of records indeed.

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8 hours ago, porcy62 said:

I find Waldron's Prestige blowin' session exactly what they are for me: enjoyable blowin session, some better then other, but enjoyable nevertheless. I like the trio too. And agree about The Quest, a great record.

He and Teddy Charles did a good job organizing those type of dates.

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On 4/5/2022 at 1:34 PM, HutchFan said:

Clifford,

Generally speaking, I prefer Hawes' music after he was released from prison, rather than before. 

If you haven't heard them already, I would recommend these two albums:  

- Blues for Bud (Black Lion)
- Hamp's Piano (MPS)

Both were recorded in Europe while Hawes was on tour there. 

 

HutchFan, I tend to agree with your comment on Hawes.

There was also a period where Hawes got a slight bit into a Bill Evans approach to his piano playing. 

And then he also recorded a few albums where he played electric piano. Didn't care for them.

Hawes good friend Sonny Clark and he both had a serious drug problem that strongly impacted their demise.

It is interesting that both Hawes and Clark were excellent blues piano players

And T.D. you are correct, I don't care for Mal Waldrons later recordings.

M earlier point was that I Neve have considered Waldron a bop oriented piano player. That is not a put down , but just my observation. So when I hear Waldron on those early bop or even mainstream Prestige albums with some of the musicians I mentioned in my first post, he just does not fit in the way the many others I mentioned would have done.

He was ok on Quest or some of the Prestige sessions with Booker Little, but not with 1950's Jackie McLean' Just my personal take.

 P.S. I thought "High In The Sky" was one of my least favorite Hampton Hawes recordings.

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Alls I can say is that Mal is one of the most singular and greatest jazz pianists there ever was or will be. The best of his later music is as special as anything recorded by any jazz pianist ever. The influence that he had on my future listening when I first started listening to jazz 30 years ago is impossible to over estimate. He opened my ears up to a different sort of jazz piano. Not about all the notes all the time. 
 

Transylvanian Dance, baby

 

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33 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Alls I can say is that Mal is one of the most singular and greatest jazz pianists there ever was or will be. The best of his later music is as special as anything recorded by any jazz pianist ever. The influence that he had on my future listening when I first started listening to jazz 30 years ago is impossible to over estimate. He opened my ears up to a different sort of jazz piano. Not about all the notes all the time. 
 

Transylvanian Dance, baby

 

:tup

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4 hours ago, Guy Berger said:

His duets with David Murray (the album Silence) are sooooo good.

Yeah that album is fantastic. Gave it the full five stars on my blog. It’s really what music should be all about.

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I really do like Mal 1-4 and the Quest, Little/Dolphy. Honestly, anywhere Mal was on (especially the Prestige days) I bought, distinctively for his uniqueness;  but in my opinion, Mal is best when left alone to do what he wants, for example his ECM date. Maybe in a unusual collaboration, Marion Brown got closest to understanding Mal's style on those great duet records they cut for Bicycle Wheel in the 80-90's. My opinion of course.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi to all. Maybe someone could enlight me about a - seemingly - download only release of Mal Waldron. https://www.qobuz.com/de-de/album/the-search-mal-waldron/0660652803024

I only know the tune "The Search". It's on the ENJA album "A Touch of Blues" and has 8 minutes and a bit. But the one on Qobuz has more than 18". And "Entrance" is unknown to me. Searched the web and also all my Tom Lord Jazz discography CDr plus the Walter Bruyninckx discography. But nothing came up. Anyone?

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49 minutes ago, Onxidlib said:

Hi to all. Maybe someone could enlight me about a - seemingly - download only release of Mal Waldron. https://www.qobuz.com/de-de/album/the-search-mal-waldron/0660652803024

I only know the tune "The Search". It's on the ENJA album "A Touch of Blues" and has 8 minutes and a bit. But the one on Qobuz has more than 18". And "Entrance" is unknown to me. Searched the web and also all my Tom Lord Jazz discography CDr plus the Walter Bruyninckx discography. But nothing came up. Anyone?

There's a really vague Allmusic page:

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-search-mw0002497467

The image there shows "Recorded early 1970s" and "Black Lion Vault Remastered".

Also shows on Allmusic's Waldron discography under Compilations, as a 2012 release on 1201 Music (Black Lion reissue label iirc).

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mal-waldron-mn0000665824/discography/compilations

Edited by T.D.
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16 hours ago, T.D. said:

There's a really vague Allmusic page:

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-search-mw0002497467

The image there shows "Recorded early 1970s" and "Black Lion Vault Remastered".

Also shows on Allmusic's Waldron discography under Compilations, as a 2012 release on 1201 Music (Black Lion reissue label iirc).

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mal-waldron-mn0000665824/discography/compilations

Thanks T.D. - yes I see what's at allmusic.com. Unfortunately there's no information about the line-up or recording location. And early 1970s isn't very specific either. I would assume that the music's (tape?) source does include at least the personnel apart from Waldron. But Qobuz, iTunes etc. aren't very helpful insofar - to put it mildly. Thanks again.

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My strong guess is that the two titles of "The Search" are unissued tracks related to a Freedom LP release "A little bit of Miles" in 1974.

These two long titles where reissued as bonus tracks on CD "Blues for Lady Day" in 1993. I listened now to all four tracks and I believe they are from the same concert, recorded in Leiden, Holland Feb. 9th 1972 with Henk Haverhoek on bass and Pierre Courbois on drums. Maybe I'm wrong, but time and label would fit.

Greetings from Vienna

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56 minutes ago, blacksaint said:

My strong guess is that the two titles of "The Search" are unissued tracks related to a Freedom LP release "A little bit of Miles" in 1974.

These two long titles where reissued as bonus tracks on CD "Blues for Lady Day" in 1993. I listened now to all four tracks and I believe they are from the same concert, recorded in Leiden, Holland Feb. 9th 1972 with Henk Haverhoek on bass and Pierre Courbois on drums. Maybe I'm wrong, but time and label would fit.

Greetings from Vienna

Thanks, very helpful.

The 1201 Music website shows a lot of interesting DL releases with sketchy (or no) discographical information:

https://1201music.com/black-lion-jazz-greats-24-bit-remastered/

Edited by T.D.
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I've listened to several of those, some interesting things in there. It would be great to have a CD with the complete Look For The Black Star session.

Speaking of, does anyone know more about how these Jym Young and Dewey Redman tapes made their way to Europe in the first place?

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