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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 university.
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 Waldrons 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.
Early life
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
3
stated: jazz is like a conversation. [...] So to do this face
to face, it is more direct, stronger and more accurate.[18]
A further lm score was written for Japanese director
Haruki Kadokawa's Tokyo Blues in 1986.[6]
Personal life
5 Inuence
Waldron has inuenced later generations of pianists. Examples are Matthew Shipp[29] and Stanley Cowell.[30] Another, Ethan Iverson, describes Waldron as one of his
biggest inuences, and reports having imitated most aspects of the older mans style during his own musical development, through listening to Waldrons recordings.[15]
Waldron contributed more personally to Ran Blake's
progress: he was Blakes teacher for a time, helping him to improve his rhythmic exibility and idea
development.[31][32]
6 Discography
4
Playing style
When he rst played with Mingus, Waldron was a follower of Horace Silver's style, which used added chords
and passing notes,[28] 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.[28] Before his breakdown, Waldron played in
a lyrical way, but after it, I couldn't nd 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
7 References
[1] Fordham, John (January 28, 2003) Mal Waldron. The
Guardian.
[2] Lock, Graham (1994) Chasing the Vibration: Meetings
with Creative Musicians. pp. 3637. Stride Publications.
[3] Davis, Francis (October 13, 1990) Mal Waldron Is Coming to the Bride. The Inquirer.
[4] 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] Stokes, W. Royal (2002) Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians About Their Careers in Jazz.
Oxford University Press.
[6] Mal Waldron.
(December 13,
news.scotsman.com Accessed July 2, 2013.
2002)
EXTERNAL LINKS
8 External links
Chronological list of Mal Waldron records
Mal Waldron discography by session
On Mal Waldron essay by Ethan Iverson
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