Waldro n β one on WKCR, another on the phone β that contributed to the bulk of the piece. It was an honor to meet and interact with him. An expatriate for roughly half his life, year-old pianist Mal Waldron, New York born, finds it increasingly difficult to come home.
Having the smoke around me when I play the piano helps me to feel the mood, and feel relaxed and jazzy. And he sounds good himself. Structurally complex, deploying unusual time signatures and relentlessly logical chord changes, they have a dark, astringent feel, with spare melodies that penetrate your bones and stay there. He was also house pianist, arranger and composer for Prestige Records, where he imparted an organizing, cohesive quality to in-and-out-of-the-studio blowing dates led by the likes of Gene Ammons, Jackie McLean and John Coltrane.
My life consisted of thinking about the melodies in the daytime, writing them at night, and recording them the next day. Raised in Jamaica, Queens, he had piano lessons from an early age, developing proficiency with classical repertoire.
Fear is a great motivator. It kept going like that all night long. I heard Monk there even before I heard his records. He was a big man, austere and imposing. But later it grew on me. He pursued studies in composition and theory with Karel Radhaus, while continuing to chase the music, most frequently at a jam session run by saxman Big Nick Nicholas at the Paradiso.
I found my basis was strong enough at least to enable me to play the changes right. His sound fit his personality. Observing him helped me decide that if you just played the way you spoke or moved in the streets, you would be closer to your own sound.
