User:Mind meal/Sandbox19
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| Mal Waldron | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Malcolm Earl Waldron |
| Born | August 16, 1925 New York, New York, United States |
| Died | December 2, 2002 (aged 77) Brussels, Belgium |
| Label(s) | Prestige Records Savoy Records Impulse! New Jazz/Original Jazz Classics Enja Records |
| Associated acts | Billie Holiday, Ike Quebec, Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Judi Silvano |
Mal Waldron (August 16, 1925—December 2, 2002), born Malcolm Earl Waldron, was an expatriate American jazz pianist, composer and bandleader.
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[edit] Biography
Mal Waldron was born in New York, New York on August 16, 1925. While some biographies have previously listed his birth year as 1926, Waldron stated the inconsistency stemmed from his trying to "retrieve one of the two years he spent in the Army in the 1940s."[1] He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 and was stationed at West Point.[2] After aspiring to be a classical pianist by age eight[1] and moving on to play alto saxophone, Waldron eventually switched to playing jazz piano while attending Queens College, City University of New York—receiving his BA there in composition. Following graduation in 1949[2] he worked the local scene in New York City and did his first professional work at the Café Society with Ike Quebec in 1950, recording with Quebec also that year. In 1954 he began work with Charles Mingus—appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival with Mingus's Jazz Composer's Workshop in 1955 and also his Jazz Workshop in 1956.[3] from 1956 to 1958 Waldron worked at the Prestige record label as "house pianist," recording with musicians such as Jackie McLean, Addison Farmer, Art Farmer, Arthur Taylor, Doug Watkins, Gene Ammons, Ray Draper, Herbie Mann, Donald Byrd and double bass player Paul Chambers. He also did jazz and poetry gigs with poets like Kenneth Rexroth and Allen Ginsberg at the Five Spot during this period.[2][1]
In 1963, Waldron went through a collapse that was likely brought on by drug abuse or exhaustion (possibly both). The artist had reportedly overdosed and had to be revived by spinal tap and shock treatment. He went to Japan for the first time in 1970and went on to became one of the country's top jazz artists, composing the soundtrack to Tokyo Blues by Haruki Kadokawa. In 1995 he composed a piece commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Japan entitled "White Road, Black Rain."
During the 1990s he moved to Brussels, Belgium, where he died of cancer on December 2, 2002 at age 77.[2][1]
[edit] Style
As a composer, Waldron was influenced by blues music and composers like Thelonious Monk, Erik Satie, Charles Mingus, Johannes Brahms and others. His compositions were multifaceted, implementing atypical time signatures and chord changes that were sometimes dark and almost always spare. As he himself once said of his music, "My technique was always nil and still is nil. I only play what I hear, and usually I have enough technique to be able to play whatever I hear. But other musicians hear things that I can't play because my technique isn't up to it."[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d “Mal Waldron”, Contemporary Musicians (Gale Group) 43, <http://galenet.galegroup.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/servlet/BioRC>
- ^ a b c d e Panken, Ted. "Mal Waldron: 1926-2002". Down Beat.
- ^ Doerschuk, Robert L.; Kernfeld, Barry. Waldron, Mal. Grove Music Online.
[edit] References
- Doerschuk, Robert L.; Kernfeld, Barry. Waldron, Mal. Grove Music Online. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
- Panken, Ted (March 2003). "Mal Waldron: 1926-2002". Down Beat 70 (3): 14.
