Mal Waldron Sextet - Mal2 (1957/2023) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

Among the many prodigious and tragic talents in the Prestige Records stable of the mid-'50s, pianist Mal Waldron was one of the most prodigious and tragic. Waldron's abilities on the piano made him an accompanist of choice (he was Billie Holiday's from early 1957 until her death); his style in group improvisational formats was daring and innovative, pushing the envelope of hard bop and post-bop into more progressive areas. Additionally, his writing skills were among the scene's most notable. (Waldron had said that while at Prestige, he probably wrote more than 400 compositions.) Meanwhile, Waldron's debilitating heroin addiction led to a nervous breakdown that left him completely mentally incapacitated in the early '60s, forcing him to re-learn the piano. Although Waldron would end up being one of the leading lights of the avant-garde jazz scene of the late '60s and beyond, he never seemed to get the broader recognition that his talent deserved. If there's any album that could be presented as primary evidence in the case for Mal Waldron as an unsung titan, it would be Mal/2. Released the same year as his debut, this session finds Waldron augmenting and altering the core quintet that played on Mal/1. While that group of Julian Euell, Idrees Sulieman, Arthur Edgehill and Gigi Gryce was certainly skilled, the addition of John Coltrane's tenor on all of these cuts, along with alto work by either Jackie McLean or Sahib Shihab, and drums by either Ed Thigpen or Art Taylor … well, it suffices to say that these performances are pushing the material to its limits. Although the original album was evenly divided between Waldron's original compositions and songbook standards, the electric personality of this group courses through all of the material here. From the opening notes of Cole Porter's "From This Moment On," Waldron and his accompaniment are absolutely on fire, bending and re-shaping songs in a bold manner that's due as much to the players' abilities as to his arrangement instincts. A definite cut above many of the Prestige blowing sessions that made their way to wax during this era.

TRACKLIST

1. Mal Waldron Sextet - From This Moment On
2. Mal Waldron Sextet - J.M.'s Dream Doll
3. Mal Waldron Sextet - The Way You Look Tonight
4. Mal Waldron Sextet - One By One
5. Mal Waldron Sextet - Don't Explain
6. Mal Waldron Sextet - Potpourri



Thanks to the Original customer.