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Mal Waldron

Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy, among others. During Waldron's period as house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s, he appeared on dozens of albums and composed for many of them, including writing his most famous song, "Soul Eyes", for Coltrane. Waldron was often an accompanist for vocalists, and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959.

Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron in 1987
Background information
Birth nameMalcolm Earl Waldron
Born(1925-08-16)August 16, 1925
New York City, New York, United States
DiedDecember 2, 2002(2002-12-02) (aged 77)
Brussels, Belgium
GenresAvant-garde jazz
Hard bop
Modal jazz
Post-bop
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, arranger
Instrument(s)Piano
Years activeEarly 1950s–2002

A breakdown caused by a drug overdose in 1963 left Waldron unable to play or remember any music; he regained his skills gradually, while redeveloping his speed of thought. He left the U.S. permanently in the mid-1960s, settled in Europe, and continued touring internationally until his death.

In his 50-year career, Waldron recorded more than 100 albums under his own name and more than 70 for other band leaders. He also wrote for modern ballet, and composed the scores of several feature films. As a pianist, 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. He is known for his dissonant chord voicings and distinctive later playing style, which featured repetition of notes and motifs.

Early life edit

Mal Waldron was born in New York City on August 16, 1925,[1] to West Indian immigrants.[2] His father was a mechanical engineer who worked on the Long Island Rail Road.[3] The family moved to Jamaica, Queens when Mal was four years old.[4] Waldron's parents discouraged his initial interest in jazz, but he was able to maintain it by listening to swing on the radio.[2] Waldron had classical piano lessons from the age of around seven until he was about 16.[5] He then became inspired to play jazz on tenor saxophone when he heard Coleman Hawkins' 1939 recording of "Body and Soul", but bought an alto saxophone, unable to afford a tenor.[2] He played alto for local bands that performed for "dances, bar mitzvahs, Spanish weddings", frequently taking over the pianist's role when other musicians took their solos.[5]: 70 

In 1943, after high school and having enrolled in college, Waldron was called up by the army, and was based at West Point, in New York.[4][6] This allowed him to listen to the greats of jazz in clubs on 52nd Street and elsewhere in the city.[4] After two years in the army,[3] he returned as a student to Queens College in New York, where he studied under composer Karol Rathaus[4] and made the final decision to switch from saxophone to piano.[7] This decision was influenced in part by hearing Charlie Parker's virtuoso speed on saxophone,[5] and by not having the extroverted personality Waldron thought necessary for that instrument.[3] Not yet a professional musician, he received money through the G.I. Bill and continued to live with his parents.[4] After obtaining a B.A. in music in 1949, Waldron worked for a short time in rhythm and blues bands, including with Big Nick Nicholas.[8]

Later life and career edit

Early career in New York edit

Waldron went on to work with Ike Quebec in New York in 1950 and made his recording debut with the saxophonist in 1952.[9] They played at Café Society Downtown on Mondays for six or seven months, which helped Waldron gain exposure and more work.[5] Waldron worked frequently with Charles Mingus from 1954 to 1956, as part of the latter's jazz composers' workshop.[7] He was pianist on several Mingus recordings, including Pithecanthropus Erectus, which was a key development in the movement towards freer collective improvisation in jazz.[10]: 1001  In 1955, Waldron worked with Lucky Millinder and Lucky Thompson.[7] Waldron formed his own band in 1956, which consisted of Idrees Sulieman (trumpet), Gigi Gryce (alto saxophone), Julian Euell (bass), and Arthur Edgehill (drums).[9][11] This band recorded Waldron's first release as a leader, Mal-1, in November of that year.[11] Waldron was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959,[9] including for the all-star television broadcast The Sound of Jazz.[8]

Waldron played on numerous sessions for Prestige Records from 1956 to 1958,[9] as he was the house pianist with the label, a position he acquired after being introduced to Prestige by saxophonist Jackie McLean.[5][8] Waldron appeared on several McLean-led recordings, and was praised by critic John S. Wilson for these performances as being "a consistently interesting and inventive pianist, who apparently can create fresh and provocative ideas even in the midst of a shrilling bedlam".[12] Other leaders he worked under at Prestige included Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, John Coltrane, and Phil Woods. Waldron often used his own arrangements and compositions for the Prestige sessions, of which his most famous, "Soul Eyes", written for Coltrane,[13] became a widely recorded jazz standard following its initial appearance on the 1957 album Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors.[14] He composed at night at home in St. Albans between all-day recording sessions, and in a car traveling to and from the studio in Hackensack.[5]: 71–72  Waldron estimated that he composed more than 400 pieces of music during his time with Prestige.[4]

After Holiday died, Waldron played with vocalist Abbey Lincoln and her husband, drummer Max Roach.[7] Around this time, Waldron's playing on his own recordings became darker, featuring emotional shifts and variations in minor keys.[10] In 1961, Waldron played in Eric Dolphy and Booker Little's quintet, a promising combination that ended when Little died that year, aged 23.[10]: 382–3 

In addition to writing for his own band and those led by others, Waldron wrote and arranged for early play-along records that were published by Music Minus One.[8][15] Some of these recordings on which Waldron played were released under his name. He also wrote scores for modern ballet in the 1950s and started writing film scores in the following decade.[7] His writing for the film The Cool World (released in 1964) was described in The Oxford Companion to Jazz as one of the first attempts to stress improvisation rather than composition in a jazz-based film score.[16]

Breakdown and recovery edit

In 1963 Waldron had a major breakdown caused by a heroin overdose. He recounted in 1998 that a lot of musicians in the 1950s and 1960s felt that taking drugs was necessary for career progression.[17] The police assumed they were all doing it, according to Waldron:

The police would stop the musicians and search us as we came out of the clubs after work. We had to turn our pockets inside out. After a while, the musicians thought ... well, if you have the name you might as well have the game. Eventually, I overdosed. I couldn't remember my own name. My hands were trembling, I couldn't play the piano. I needed shock treatments and a spinal tap to bring me back.[17]

Waldron always felt that he had to return to playing, but this was a slow process. About a year after the overdose, his physical recovery was sufficient to allow him to start relearning his skills, which he did partly by listening to his own records.[18] His recovery as a musician continued for another two years, as his speed of thought was still too slow over that period to allow genuine improvisation: "I worked out my solos in advance and played what I had written out, until gradually all my faculties returned".[18]: 170 

Career after move to Europe edit

From the mid-1960s on, Waldron spent a lot of time in Europe: Paris, Rome, Bologna, and Cologne, before moving permanently to Munich in 1967.[9] Waldron originally moved to France when film director Marcel Carné asked him if he wanted to compose the score for Three Rooms in Manhattan in New York or Paris; Waldron's 1958 experience touring Europe with Holiday made the decision an easy one.[5]: 72–73  Waldron's stated reasons for settling in Europe were his disgust with the "fierce, cutthroat competition, just to get a job" and the fact that black musicians were paid less than their white counterparts in the U.S.[19] The 1965 score for Three Rooms in Manhattan was followed by one for the American film Sweet Love, Bitter in 1967.[7][9] Waldron also composed for theater (Amiri Baraka's The Slave and Dutchman), television, and short films.[7] In Europe around this time he played with other expatriates, including Ben Webster and Kenny Clarke.[7]

Waldron's 1969 album Free at Last was the first release on the ECM label. This recording was an example of Waldron playing, in his words, "rhythmically instead of soloing on chord changes".[10] Two years later, another Waldron recording session was the first for another label that became firmly established – Enja Records.[20] His 1971 album The Call was the first release on the ECM sublabel JAPO; it features Waldron playing an electric piano.[21] In the early 1970s, he collaborated with the German krautrock band Embryo on the albums Steig Aus![21] and Rocksession. Waldron also wrote the score for the 1972 French film George Who?[22]

Waldron became popular in Japan, first playing there in 1970,[7] after being invited by Swing Journal following the success of one of his earlier recordings.[23] From 1975 he made visits to the U.S., mostly playing solo piano from the late 1970s to early 1980s. Other formats included a quartet with Joe Henderson, Herbie Lewis, and Freddie Waits; another quartet with Charlie Rouse, Calvin Hill and Horacee Arnold; a trio with Hill and Arnold; and a duo with Cameron Brown.[9] Waldron performed and recorded extensively throughout Europe and Japan. In the early 1980s he reported that he allotted agents in France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia a month each per year of his time, but set aside two months for Japan.[13]

During the 1980s and 1990s Waldron worked with Steve Lacy, notably in piano–soprano duets playing their own compositions as well as Thelonious Monk's. Duet albums with others were also prominent in Waldron's recordings from the early 1980s.[8] This setting was chosen partly for economic reasons, but mainly for artistic ones, Waldron stated: "jazz is like a conversation. [...] So to do this face to face, it is more direct, stronger and more accurate".[18] A further film score was written for Japanese director Haruki Kadokawa's Tokyo Blues in 1986.[6]

Waldron moved from Munich to Brussels in the 1990s,[9] stating that, in Belgium, "nobody stands on the corner waiting for the lights to change. In Germany they watch the lights instead of the cars. The lights never killed anybody."[17] From the mid-1990s, Waldron traveled to the U.S. less frequently, put off by no longer being allowed to smoke in many of the jazz clubs there.[14] Around the same period, Waldron recorded several albums with vocalist Jeanne Lee. Two of his final recordings were duets with saxophonists who tended, as he did, to play in melodic and free forms: David Murray and Archie Shepp.[24][25] After some years of indifferent health, Waldron, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with cancer in 2002. He continued to perform until his death on December 2 of that year in a hospital in Brussels, due to complications resulting from the cancer.[26] He was 77, and had played his final concert in Lille two weeks earlier.[26]

Personal life edit

Waldron married twice and had seven children[1] – two with his first wife and five with the second.[17] Billie Holiday was godmother to his first daughter.[27] Waldron's first wife, Elaine, occasionally sang on his recordings.[28] His second wife was Japanese, and they owned and let several apartments in Japan.[17] Combining birthday celebrations with a tour, Waldron took both families – ex-wife, wife, seven children and two grandchildren – on his three-week tour of Japan that coincided with his seventieth birthday.[17] Waldron's mother died in 1979.[13] He could speak English, French, German, and Japanese.[17]

Artistry edit

When he first played with Mingus, Waldron was a follower of Horace Silver's style, which used added chords and passing notes,[29] as well as Bud Powell's, which contained many runs.[4] Mingus encouraged him to strip away these things and concentrate on basic and altered harmonies.[29] Before his breakdown, Waldron played in a lyrical way, but after it, "I couldn't find that lyricism inside myself any more, so I became a very angular player", becoming more like Thelonious Monk in playing and composition style.[18]

From the time he moved to Europe, Waldron played mostly in a free style, while being able to play in a more traditional style when the audience or situation required it.[13] He used thick chords in the lower bass register; 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 dark color to his sound. One facet of his playing was, according to The Penguin Guide to Jazz, "likened to American minimalism: a slow accretion of almost subliminal harmonic and rhythmic shifts steadily pile up until the music seems ready to overbalance".[10]: 1455 

As an accompanist to vocalists Holiday, Lincoln, Lee and others, Waldron was described by critic and musician Alyn Shipton as "one of the most sublime accompanists in jazz".[18]: 172 

Waldron's own assessment of his style was that it was partly a reflection of his personality: "It's part of my personality to be very economical with what I have and to use it in all variations before I move to the next set of notes".[19] He acknowledged the influences of Holiday (on his conception of space and playing behind the beat), Mingus (for the importance of individuality), and Roach (on the value of time signatures other than the usual 4/4), as well as pianists Duke Ellington, Monk, Powell and Art Tatum.[19]

Influence edit

Waldron has influenced later generations of pianists. Examples are Matthew Shipp[30] and Stanley Cowell.[31] Another, Ethan Iverson, describes Waldron as one of his biggest influences, and reports having imitated most aspects of the older man's style during his own musical development, through listening to Waldron's recordings.[15] Waldron contributed more personally to Ran Blake's progress: he was Blake's teacher for a time, helping him to improve his rhythmic flexibility and idea development.[32][33]

Discography edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Fordham, John (January 28, 2003) "Mal Waldron". The Guardian.
  2. ^ a b c Lock, Graham (1994) Chasing the Vibration: Meetings with Creative Musicians. pp. 36–37. Stride Publications.
  3. ^ a b c Davis, Francis (October 13, 1990) "Mal Waldron Is Coming to the Bride". The Inquirer.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g WKCR broadcast (August 23, 2001) Transcribed at Panken, Ted (August 15, 2011) "Two Interviews with Mal Waldron on the 86th Anniversary of His Birth". Transcript of WKCR radio interview. Accessed July 9, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Stokes, W. Royal (2002) Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians About Their Careers in Jazz. Oxford University Press.
  6. ^ a b "Mal Waldron". (December 13, 2002) news.scotsman.com Accessed July 2, 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Feather, Leonard and Gitler, Ira (2007) The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. p. 670. Oxford University Press.
  8. ^ a b c d e Novod, Eric "Waldron, Mal (Malcolm Earl)" 2013-08-04 at the Wayback Machine. jazz.com Accessed July 2, 2013.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Doerschuk, Robert L. and Kernfeld, Barry The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd ed.). "Waldron, Mal". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed May 12, 2013. (Subscription required.)
  10. ^ a b c d e Cook, Richard and Morton, Brian (2008) The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. Penguin.
  11. ^ a b Todd, Jim "Mal-1: Review". AllMusic. Accessed July 9, 2013.
  12. ^ Wilson, John S. (1959) The Collector's Jazz: Modern. p. 178. J.B. Lippincott.
  13. ^ a b c d Wilson, John S. (November 13, 1981) "Mal Waldron Back in a Solo Concert" The New York Times. p. C17.
  14. ^ a b Ratliff, Ben (December 6, 2002) "Mal Waldron, 77, Composer of the Jazz Ballad 'Soul Eyes'". The New York Times.
  15. ^ a b Iverson, Ethan "On Mal Waldron" 2010-12-12 at the Wayback Machine. Ethan Iverson's blog. Accessed July 14, 2013.
  16. ^ Berg, Chuck (2005) "Jazz and Film and Television". In Kirchner, Bill (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Jazz. p. 717. Oxford University Press.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Zwerin, Mike (January 22, 1998) "Mal Waldron: Looking for Musical Surprises". The New York Times.
  18. ^ a b c d e Shipton, Alyn (2004) Handful of Keys: Conversations with Thirty Jazz Pianists. Equinox.
  19. ^ a b c Pareles, Jon (September 10, 1982) "Pop/Jazz: Mal Waldron, Expatriate, Brings Quintet to Town" The New York Times. p. C22.
  20. ^ About Enja Records" 2013-07-09 at the Wayback Machine. Enja Records. Accessed July 20, 2013.
  21. ^ a b Fitter Stoke (June 20, 2002). "Review: Mal Waldron – The Call". Head Heritage. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  22. ^ British Film Institute. Accessed July 16, 2013.
  23. ^ Brown, John Robert (2010) A Concise History of Jazz. pp. 169–170. Mel Bay Publications.
  24. ^ Fordham, John (April 11, 2003) "Archie Shepp / Mal Waldron: Left Alone Revisited". The Guardian.
  25. ^ Nastos, Michael G. "Silence: Review". AllMusic. Accessed July 14, 2013.
  26. ^ a b "Mal Waldron, 77; Pianist Played with Many Jazz Greats". (December 4, 2002) Los Angeles Times.
  27. ^ Glassman, Marc (December 1, 1988) "Mal Waldron" Coda. p. 14.
  28. ^ Yanow, Scott (2003) Jazz on Record: The First Sixty Years. p. 487. Backbeat Books.
  29. ^ a b Rosenthal, David (1993) Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955–1965. p. 137. Oxford University Press.
  30. ^ Jurek, Thom "One: Review". AllMusic. Accessed July 9, 2013.
  31. ^ Pareles, Jon (July 6, 1989) "Review/Jazz; Study in Contrasts by Cowell Quartet". The New York Times.
  32. ^ Bruce, Ryan D.W. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd ed.). "Blake, Ran". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed July 20, 2013. (Subscription required.)
  33. ^ Lyons, Len (1983) The Great Jazz Pianists: Speaking of Their Lives and Music. p. 197. W. Morrow.

External links edit

  • "Chronological list of Mal Waldron records"
  • Mal Waldron discography by session
  • "On Mal Waldron" – essay by Ethan Iverson

waldron, malcolm, earl, waldron, august, 1925, december, 2002, american, jazz, pianist, composer, arranger, started, playing, professionally, york, 1950, after, graduating, from, college, following, dozen, years, waldron, bands, played, those, charles, mingus,. Malcolm Earl Mal Waldron August 16 1925 December 2 2002 was an American jazz pianist composer and arranger He started playing professionally in New York in 1950 after graduating from college In the following dozen years or so Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus Jackie McLean John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy among others During Waldron s period as house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s he appeared on dozens of albums and composed for many of them including writing his most famous song Soul Eyes for Coltrane Waldron was often an accompanist for vocalists and was Billie Holiday s regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959 Mal WaldronMal Waldron in 1987Background informationBirth nameMalcolm Earl WaldronBorn 1925 08 16 August 16 1925New York City New York United StatesDiedDecember 2 2002 2002 12 02 aged 77 Brussels BelgiumGenresAvant garde jazzHard bopModal jazzPost bopOccupation s Musician composer arrangerInstrument s PianoYears activeEarly 1950s 2002 A breakdown caused by a drug overdose in 1963 left Waldron unable to play or remember any music he regained his skills gradually while redeveloping his speed of thought He left the U S permanently in the mid 1960s settled in Europe and continued touring internationally until his death In his 50 year career Waldron recorded more than 100 albums under his own name and more than 70 for other band leaders He also wrote for modern ballet and composed the scores of several feature films As a pianist 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 He is known for his dissonant chord voicings and distinctive later playing style which featured repetition of notes and motifs Contents 1 Early life 2 Later life and career 2 1 Early career in New York 2 2 Breakdown and recovery 2 3 Career after move to Europe 3 Personal life 4 Artistry 5 Influence 6 Discography 7 References 8 External linksEarly life editMal Waldron was born in New York City on August 16 1925 1 to West Indian immigrants 2 His father was a mechanical engineer who worked on the Long Island Rail Road 3 The family moved to Jamaica Queens when Mal was four years old 4 Waldron s parents discouraged his initial interest in jazz but he was able to maintain it by listening to swing on the radio 2 Waldron had classical piano lessons from the age of around seven until he was about 16 5 He then became inspired to play jazz on tenor saxophone when he heard Coleman Hawkins 1939 recording of Body and Soul but bought an alto saxophone unable to afford a tenor 2 He played alto for local bands that performed for dances bar mitzvahs Spanish weddings frequently taking over the pianist s role when other musicians took their solos 5 70 In 1943 after high school and having enrolled in college Waldron was called up by the army and was based at West Point in New York 4 6 This allowed him to listen to the greats of jazz in clubs on 52nd Street and elsewhere in the city 4 After two years in the army 3 he returned as a student to Queens College in New York where he studied under composer Karol Rathaus 4 and made the final decision to switch from saxophone to piano 7 This decision was influenced in part by hearing Charlie Parker s virtuoso speed on saxophone 5 and by not having the extroverted personality Waldron thought necessary for that instrument 3 Not yet a professional musician he received money through the G I Bill and continued to live with his parents 4 After obtaining a B A in music in 1949 Waldron worked for a short time in rhythm and blues bands including with Big Nick Nicholas 8 Later life and career editEarly career in New York edit Waldron went on to work with Ike Quebec in New York in 1950 and made his recording debut with the saxophonist in 1952 9 They played at Cafe Society Downtown on Mondays for six or seven months which helped Waldron gain exposure and more work 5 Waldron worked frequently with Charles Mingus from 1954 to 1956 as part of the latter s jazz composers workshop 7 He was pianist on several Mingus recordings including Pithecanthropus Erectus which was a key development in the movement towards freer collective improvisation in jazz 10 1001 In 1955 Waldron worked with Lucky Millinder and Lucky Thompson 7 Waldron formed his own band in 1956 which consisted of Idrees Sulieman trumpet Gigi Gryce alto saxophone Julian Euell bass and Arthur Edgehill drums 9 11 This band recorded Waldron s first release as a leader Mal 1 in November of that year 11 Waldron was Billie Holiday s regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959 9 including for the all star television broadcast The Sound of Jazz 8 Waldron played on numerous sessions for Prestige Records from 1956 to 1958 9 as he was the house pianist with the label a position he acquired after being introduced to Prestige by saxophonist Jackie McLean 5 8 Waldron appeared on several McLean led recordings and was praised by critic John S Wilson for these performances as being a consistently interesting and inventive pianist who apparently can create fresh and provocative ideas even in the midst of a shrilling bedlam 12 Other leaders he worked under at Prestige included Gene Ammons Kenny Burrell John Coltrane and Phil Woods Waldron often used his own arrangements and compositions for the Prestige sessions of which his most famous Soul Eyes written for Coltrane 13 became a widely recorded jazz standard following its initial appearance on the 1957 album Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors 14 He composed at night at home in St Albans between all day recording sessions and in a car traveling to and from the studio in Hackensack 5 71 72 Waldron estimated that he composed more than 400 pieces of music during his time with Prestige 4 After Holiday died Waldron played with vocalist Abbey Lincoln and her husband drummer Max Roach 7 Around this time Waldron s playing on his own recordings became darker featuring emotional shifts and variations in minor keys 10 In 1961 Waldron played in Eric Dolphy and Booker Little s quintet a promising combination that ended when Little died that year aged 23 10 382 3 In addition to writing for his own band and those led by others Waldron wrote and arranged for early play along records that were published by Music Minus One 8 15 Some of these recordings on which Waldron played were released under his name He also wrote scores for modern ballet in the 1950s and started writing film scores in the following decade 7 His writing for the film The Cool World released in 1964 was described in The Oxford Companion to Jazz as one of the first attempts to stress improvisation rather than composition in a jazz based film score 16 Breakdown and recovery editIn 1963 Waldron had a major breakdown caused by a heroin overdose He recounted in 1998 that a lot of musicians in the 1950s and 1960s felt that taking drugs was necessary for career progression 17 The police assumed they were all doing it according to Waldron The police would stop the musicians and search us as we came out of the clubs after work We had to turn our pockets inside out After a while the musicians thought well if you have the name you might as well have the game Eventually I overdosed I couldn t remember my own name My hands were trembling I couldn t play the piano I needed shock treatments and a spinal tap to bring me back 17 Waldron always felt that he had to return to playing but this was a slow process About a year after the overdose his physical recovery was sufficient to allow him to start relearning his skills which he did partly by listening to his own records 18 His recovery as a musician continued for another two years as his speed of thought was still too slow over that period to allow genuine improvisation I worked out my solos in advance and played what I had written out until gradually all my faculties returned 18 170 Career after move to Europe edit From the mid 1960s on Waldron spent a lot of time in Europe Paris Rome Bologna and Cologne before moving permanently to Munich in 1967 9 Waldron originally moved to France when film director Marcel Carne asked him if he wanted to compose the score for Three Rooms in Manhattan in New York or Paris Waldron s 1958 experience touring Europe with Holiday made the decision an easy one 5 72 73 Waldron s stated reasons for settling in Europe were his disgust with the fierce cutthroat competition just to get a job and the fact that black musicians were paid less than their white counterparts in the U S 19 The 1965 score for Three Rooms in Manhattan was followed by one for the American film Sweet Love Bitter in 1967 7 9 Waldron also composed for theater Amiri Baraka s The Slave and Dutchman television and short films 7 In Europe around this time he played with other expatriates including Ben Webster and Kenny Clarke 7 Waldron s 1969 album Free at Last was the first release on the ECM label This recording was an example of Waldron playing in his words rhythmically instead of soloing on chord changes 10 Two years later another Waldron recording session was the first for another label that became firmly established Enja Records 20 His 1971 album The Call was the first release on the ECM sublabel JAPO it features Waldron playing an electric piano 21 In the early 1970s he collaborated with the German krautrock band Embryo on the albums Steig Aus 21 and Rocksession Waldron also wrote the score for the 1972 French film George Who 22 Waldron became popular in Japan first playing there in 1970 7 after being invited by Swing Journal following the success of one of his earlier recordings 23 From 1975 he made visits to the U S mostly playing solo piano from the late 1970s to early 1980s Other formats included a quartet with Joe Henderson Herbie Lewis and Freddie Waits another quartet with Charlie Rouse Calvin Hill and Horacee Arnold a trio with Hill and Arnold and a duo with Cameron Brown 9 Waldron performed and recorded extensively throughout Europe and Japan In the early 1980s he reported that he allotted agents in France Germany Italy and Scandinavia a month each per year of his time but set aside two months for Japan 13 During the 1980s and 1990s Waldron worked with Steve Lacy notably in piano soprano duets playing their own compositions as well as Thelonious Monk s Duet albums with others were also prominent in Waldron s recordings from the early 1980s 8 This setting was chosen partly for economic reasons but mainly for artistic ones Waldron stated jazz is like a conversation So to do this face to face it is more direct stronger and more accurate 18 A further film score was written for Japanese director Haruki Kadokawa s Tokyo Blues in 1986 6 Waldron moved from Munich to Brussels in the 1990s 9 stating that in Belgium nobody stands on the corner waiting for the lights to change In Germany they watch the lights instead of the cars The lights never killed anybody 17 From the mid 1990s Waldron traveled to the U S less frequently put off by no longer being allowed to smoke in many of the jazz clubs there 14 Around the same period Waldron recorded several albums with vocalist Jeanne Lee Two of his final recordings were duets with saxophonists who tended as he did to play in melodic and free forms David Murray and Archie Shepp 24 25 After some years of indifferent health Waldron a heavy smoker was diagnosed with cancer in 2002 He continued to perform until his death on December 2 of that year in a hospital in Brussels due to complications resulting from the cancer 26 He was 77 and had played his final concert in Lille two weeks earlier 26 Personal life editWaldron married twice and had seven children 1 two with his first wife and five with the second 17 Billie Holiday was godmother to his first daughter 27 Waldron s first wife Elaine occasionally sang on his recordings 28 His second wife was Japanese and they owned and let several apartments in Japan 17 Combining birthday celebrations with a tour Waldron took both families ex wife wife seven children and two grandchildren on his three week tour of Japan that coincided with his seventieth birthday 17 Waldron s mother died in 1979 13 He could speak English French German and Japanese 17 Artistry editWhen he first played with Mingus Waldron was a follower of Horace Silver s style which used added chords and passing notes 29 as well as Bud Powell s which contained many runs 4 Mingus encouraged him to strip away these things and concentrate on basic and altered harmonies 29 Before his breakdown Waldron played in a lyrical way but after it I couldn t find that lyricism inside myself any more so I became a very angular player becoming more like Thelonious Monk in playing and composition style 18 From the time he moved to Europe Waldron played mostly in a free style while being able to play in a more traditional style when the audience or situation required it 13 He used thick chords in the lower bass register 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 dark color to his sound One facet of his playing was according to The Penguin Guide to Jazz likened to American minimalism a slow accretion of almost subliminal harmonic and rhythmic shifts steadily pile up until the music seems ready to overbalance 10 1455 As an accompanist to vocalists Holiday Lincoln Lee and others Waldron was described by critic and musician Alyn Shipton as one of the most sublime accompanists in jazz 18 172 Waldron s own assessment of his style was that it was partly a reflection of his personality It s part of my personality to be very economical with what I have and to use it in all variations before I move to the next set of notes 19 He acknowledged the influences of Holiday on his conception of space and playing behind the beat Mingus for the importance of individuality and Roach on the value of time signatures other than the usual 4 4 as well as pianists Duke Ellington Monk Powell and Art Tatum 19 Influence editWaldron has influenced later generations of pianists Examples are Matthew Shipp 30 and Stanley Cowell 31 Another Ethan Iverson describes Waldron as one of his biggest influences and reports having imitated most aspects of the older man s style during his own musical development through listening to Waldron s recordings 15 Waldron contributed more personally to Ran Blake s progress he was Blake s teacher for a time helping him to improve his rhythmic flexibility and idea development 32 33 Discography editMain article Mal Waldron discographyReferences edit a b Fordham John January 28 2003 Mal Waldron The Guardian a b c Lock Graham 1994 Chasing the Vibration Meetings with Creative Musicians pp 36 37 Stride Publications a b c Davis Francis October 13 1990 Mal Waldron Is Coming to the Bride The Inquirer a b c d e f g WKCR broadcast August 23 2001 Transcribed at Panken Ted August 15 2011 Two Interviews with Mal Waldron on the 86th Anniversary of His Birth Transcript of WKCR radio interview Accessed July 9 2013 a b c d e f g Stokes W Royal 2002 Living the Jazz Life Conversations with Forty Musicians About Their Careers in Jazz Oxford University Press a b Mal Waldron December 13 2002 news scotsman com Accessed July 2 2013 a b c d e f g h i Feather Leonard and Gitler Ira 2007 The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz p 670 Oxford University Press a b c d e Novod Eric Waldron Mal Malcolm Earl Archived 2013 08 04 at the Wayback Machine jazz com Accessed July 2 2013 a b c d e f g h Doerschuk Robert L and Kernfeld Barry The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz 2nd ed Waldron Mal Grove Music Online Oxford Music Online Oxford University Press Accessed May 12 2013 Subscription required a b c d e Cook Richard and Morton Brian 2008 The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings Penguin a b Todd Jim Mal 1 Review AllMusic Accessed July 9 2013 Wilson John S 1959 The Collector s Jazz Modern p 178 J B Lippincott a b c d Wilson John S November 13 1981 Mal Waldron Back in a Solo Concert The New York Times p C17 a b Ratliff Ben December 6 2002 Mal Waldron 77 Composer of the Jazz Ballad Soul Eyes The New York Times a b Iverson Ethan On Mal Waldron Archived 2010 12 12 at the Wayback Machine Ethan Iverson s blog Accessed July 14 2013 Berg Chuck 2005 Jazz and Film and Television In Kirchner Bill ed The Oxford Companion to Jazz p 717 Oxford University Press a b c d e f g Zwerin Mike January 22 1998 Mal Waldron Looking for Musical Surprises The New York Times a b c d e Shipton Alyn 2004 Handful of Keys Conversations with Thirty Jazz Pianists Equinox a b c Pareles Jon September 10 1982 Pop Jazz Mal Waldron Expatriate Brings Quintet to Town The New York Times p C22 About Enja Records Archived 2013 07 09 at the Wayback Machine Enja Records Accessed July 20 2013 a b Fitter Stoke June 20 2002 Review Mal Waldron The Call Head Heritage Retrieved September 28 2018 George Qui British Film Institute Accessed July 16 2013 Brown John Robert 2010 A Concise History of Jazz pp 169 170 Mel Bay Publications Fordham John April 11 2003 Archie Shepp Mal Waldron Left Alone Revisited The Guardian Nastos Michael G Silence Review AllMusic Accessed July 14 2013 a b Mal Waldron 77 Pianist Played with Many Jazz Greats December 4 2002 Los Angeles Times Glassman Marc December 1 1988 Mal Waldron Coda p 14 Yanow Scott 2003 Jazz on Record The First Sixty Years p 487 Backbeat Books a b Rosenthal David 1993 Hard Bop Jazz and Black Music 1955 1965 p 137 Oxford University Press Jurek Thom One Review AllMusic Accessed July 9 2013 Pareles Jon July 6 1989 Review Jazz Study in Contrasts by Cowell Quartet The New York Times Bruce Ryan D W The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz 2nd ed Blake Ran Grove Music Online Oxford Music Online Oxford University Press Accessed July 20 2013 Subscription required Lyons Len 1983 The Great Jazz Pianists Speaking of Their Lives and Music p 197 W Morrow External links edit Chronological list of Mal Waldron records Mal Waldron discography by session On Mal Waldron essay by Ethan Iverson Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mal Waldron amp oldid 1187757871, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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