Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He began playing professionally in New York in 1950 after completing college. Over the next 12 years, Waldron led his own musical groups and performed with bands led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy, among others. During the late 1950s, Waldron worked as a regular pianist for Prestige Records, appearing on many albums and composing music for several of them. He wrote his most famous song, "Soul Eyes," for John Coltrane. Waldron often played piano for singers and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959.
A health issue caused by a drug overdose in 1963 made Waldron unable to play music or remember any songs. He slowly regained his abilities and improved his thinking speed over time. In the mid-1960s, Waldron left the United States permanently, moved to Europe, and continued performing internationally until his death.
Throughout his 50-year career, Waldron recorded more than 100 albums under his own name and more than 70 for other musicians. He also wrote music for modern ballet and composed scores for several movies. As a pianist, Waldron's early style was influenced by the hard bop and post-bop genres of the 1950s New York club scene. Over time, he became more interested in free jazz. He is known for using unusual chord combinations and a later style that included repeating notes and musical patterns.
Early life
Mal Waldron was born in New York City on August 16, 1925, to parents from the West Indies. His father was a mechanical engineer who worked on the Long Island Rail Road. When Mal was four years old, his family moved to Jamaica, Queens. His parents did not support his early interest in jazz, but he kept it by listening to swing music on the radio. Waldron took classical piano lessons from about age seven until he was about 16. He became inspired to play jazz on the tenor saxophone after hearing Coleman Hawkins' 1939 recording of "Body and Soul." However, he could not afford a tenor saxophone, so he bought an alto saxophone instead. He played alto saxophone for local bands that performed at dances, bar mitzvahs, and Spanish weddings. He often took over the pianist's role when other musicians played their solos.
In 1943, after finishing high school and starting college, Waldron was called to serve in the army and was stationed at West Point, New York. This allowed him to listen to famous jazz musicians in clubs on 52nd Street and other places in the city. After two years in the army, he returned to Queens College in New York as a student. There, he studied under composer Karol Rathaus and decided to switch from saxophone to piano. This choice was partly influenced by hearing Charlie Parker's fast playing on saxophone and by not having the outgoing personality Waldron thought was needed for that instrument. At this time, Waldron was not a professional musician, but he received money through the G.I. Bill and continued to live with his parents. After earning a B.A. in music in 1949, Waldron worked briefly in rhythm and blues bands, including with Big Nick Nicholas.
Later life and career
In 1950, Waldron began working with saxophonist Ike Quebec in New York. He made his first recording with Quebec in 1952. Waldron and Quebec performed at Café Society Downtown every Monday for six to seven months. This helped Waldron gain more attention and opportunities in the music world. From 1954 to 1956, Waldron frequently worked with Charles Mingus as part of Mingus’s jazz composers’ workshop. Waldron played piano on several of Mingus’s recordings, including Pithecanthropus Erectus, which was an important step in the development of freer collective improvisation in jazz. In 1955, Waldron worked with Lucky Millinder and Lucky Thompson. In 1956, Waldron formed his own band. The members included Idrees Sulieman (trumpet), Gigi Gryce (alto saxophone), Julian Euell (bass), and Arthur Edgehill (drums). This band recorded Waldron’s first release as a leader, Mal-1, in November 1956. Waldron was Billie Holiday’s regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959. This included performing on the all-star television broadcast The Sound of Jazz.
From 1956 to 1958, Waldron played on many recordings for Prestige Records. He was the house pianist for the label, a position he earned after saxophonist Jackie McLean introduced him to Prestige. Waldron performed on recordings led by McLean and was praised by critic John S. Wilson for being “a consistently interesting and inventive pianist, who apparently can create fresh and provocative ideas even in the midst of a shrilling bedlam.” Other leaders Waldron worked with at Prestige included Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, John Coltrane, and Phil Woods. Waldron often used his own arrangements and compositions for Prestige sessions. His most famous piece, Soul Eyes, written for Coltrane, became a widely recorded jazz standard after appearing on the 1957 album Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors. Waldron composed music at night at home in St. Albans and while traveling to and from the studio in Hackensack. He estimated he wrote more than 400 pieces during his time with Prestige.
After Holiday’s death, Waldron played with vocalist Abbey Lincoln and her husband, drummer Max Roach. Around this time, Waldron’s playing on his own recordings became darker, with emotional shifts and variations in minor keys. In 1961, Waldron played in Eric Dolphy and Booker Little’s quintet. This group ended when Little died that year at age 23.
In addition to writing for his own band and others, Waldron wrote and arranged for early play-along records published by Music Minus One. Some recordings on which Waldron played were released under his name. He also wrote scores for modern ballet in the 1950s and began writing film scores in the following decade. His work on the film The Cool World (released in 1964) was described in The Oxford Companion to Jazz as one of the first attempts to focus on improvisation rather than composition in a jazz-based film score.
In 1963, Waldron had a major breakdown caused by a heroin overdose. He later said that many musicians in the 1950s and 1960s believed drug use was necessary for career success. Waldron explained:
Waldron always felt he needed to return to playing, but it was a slow process. About a year after the overdose, his physical recovery allowed him to start relearning his skills. He partly did this by listening to his own records. His recovery as a musician continued for another two years, as his thinking was still too slow to allow genuine improvisation. He said: “I worked out my solos in advance and played what I had written out, until gradually all my faculties returned.”
From the mid-1960s onward, Waldron spent much time in Europe, including Paris, Rome, Bologna, and Cologne, before moving permanently to Munich in 1967. Waldron moved to France after film director Marcel Carné asked him 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 easy. Waldron said he moved to Europe because he disliked the “fierce, cutthroat competition” in the U.S. and the fact that Black musicians were paid less than white musicians. The 1965 score for Three Rooms in Manhattan was followed by one for the American film Sweet Love, Bitter in 1967. Waldron also composed for theater (Amiri Baraka’s The Slave and Dutchman), television, and short films. In Europe, he played with other expatriates, including Ben Webster and Kenny Clarke.
Waldron’s 1969 album Free at Last was the first release on the ECM label. This recording showed Waldron playing “rhythmically instead of soloing on chord changes.” Two years later, Waldron’s recording session was the first for another label that became well known—Enja Records. His 1971 album The Call was the first release on the ECM sublabel JAPO; it features Waldron playing an electric piano. In the early 1970s, he collaborated with the German krautrock band Embryo on the albums Steig Aus! and Rocksession. Waldron also wrote the score for the 1972 French film George Who?
Waldron became popular in Japan after being invited there in 1970 by Swing Journal following the success of one of his earlier recordings. From 1975, he made visits to the U.S., mostly playing solo piano from the late 1970s to early 1980s. Other formats included quartets 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. Waldron performed and recorded extensively throughout Europe and Japan. In the early 1980s, he reported that he gave agents in France, Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia one month of his time each year, but set aside two months for Japan.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Waldron worked with Steve Lacy, notably in piano–
Personal life
Waldron got married twice and had seven children, two with his first wife and five with his second wife. Billie Holiday was the godmother to his first daughter. Waldron's first wife, Elaine, sometimes sang on his recordings. His second wife was Japanese, and they owned and rented out several apartments in Japan. To celebrate his birthday, Waldron combined his 70th birthday with a tour of Japan. He traveled to Japan with both families, including his ex-wife, his wife, seven children, and two grandchildren. Waldron's mother died in 1979. He could speak English, French, German, and Japanese.
Artistry
When Waldron first played with Mingus, he followed the style of Horace Silver, who used added chords and passing notes, as well as Bud Powell, who played many runs. Mingus encouraged Waldron to remove these elements and focus on basic and altered harmonies. Before his breakdown, Waldron played in a lyrical way, but afterward, he said, "I couldn't find that lyricism inside myself any more, so I became a very angular player," adopting a style similar to Thelonious Monk in both playing and composition.
After moving to Europe, Waldron mostly played in a free style, but he could also play in a more traditional style when needed. He used thick chords in the lower part of the bass. His focus on weight, texture, and repeating simple motifs, rather than linear or melodic improvisation, gave his sound a heavy and dark tone. According to The Penguin Guide to Jazz, one aspect of his playing was "likened to American minimalism: a slow build-up of almost unnoticed harmonic and rhythmic changes that steadily grow until the music seems ready to tip over."
As an accompanist for vocalists like Holiday, Lincoln, and Lee, Waldron was called "one of the most sublime accompanists in jazz" by critic and musician Alyn Shipton. Waldron described his own style as partly reflecting his personality: "It's part of my personality to be very economical with what I have and to use it in all variations before moving to the next set of notes." He acknowledged influences from Holiday (on space and playing behind the beat), Mingus (on individuality), Roach (on time signatures other than 4/4), and pianists Duke Ellington, Monk, Powell, and Art Tatum.
Influence
Waldron has had an influence on later pianists. Examples include Matthew Shipp and Stanley Cowell. Ethan Iverson, another pianist, says Waldron was one of his main influences. Iverson explains that he copied many parts of Waldron's playing style during his own musical growth by listening to Waldron's recordings. Waldron also helped Ran Blake directly by teaching him. During this time, Waldron assisted Blake in improving his ability to play with different rhythms and in developing musical ideas.