(Hard Bop, Post-Bop) The Mal Waldron Trio - Impressions - 1959, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
The Mal Waldron Trio - Impressions
Label: Prestige/New Jazz/OJC OJCCD-132-2 (NJ-8242)
Жанр: Hard Bop, Post-Bop
Год выпуска: 1992
Формат: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Битрейт аудио: lossless
Продолжительность: 41:43
Трэклист:
01. Les Champs Elysées 6:22 (Mal Waldron)
02. All About Us 4:04 (Elaine Waldron)
03. Ciao! 9:55 (M. Waldron)
04. All the Way 5:47 (Cahn-Van Heusen)
05. With a Song in My Heart 6:38 (Rodgers-Hart)
06. You Stepped Out of a Dream 5:05 (Brown-Kahn)
07. Cest Formidable 3:40 (M. Waldron)
Personnel:
Mal Waldron, piano;
Addison Farmer, bass;
Albert "Tootie" Heath, drums
Recorded in Hackensack, New Jersey, March 20, 1959.
Notes reproduced from the original album liner
The writer, the painter, the composer - all are affected by what they see, hear and feel around them. The sensitive creator is not immune to any of the influences that daily assult and caress his senses and intuitions.
The jazz musician and the composer (often one and the same) are especially cognizant of the materials that make up the fabric of life. After all, what does the word "hip" mean, in the best sense of its jazz usage, but aware.
Mal Waldron is one of the jazz musicians who is also a composer. He, too, is extremely aware of the world around him. Waldron draws from his surroundings and like other artists gives something of himself in return.
In this trio album, Mal has set down his musical impressions of different places and times in his life. The three originals he has written are actually part of what he calls his Overseas Suite. They were composed in December 1958, right after he had returned from a European tour with Billie Holiday. Although they are not in sequence here, you may, if you wish, play them in the order originally intended.
The first street Mal walked on upon arriving in Paris was the Champs Elysees. 'It was the widest avenue I had ever seen. I tried to get the feeling that I had while walking down it. Among other things I was reminded of Gershwin's American In Paris."
Waldron's Champs Elysees, while not copying Gershwin's American, does approximate the flavor in part of its theme. Mal's solo then turns into some earthy blues playing. His bluesy conception was helped to be formed under the general influence that Horace Silver has exerted since the early Fifties but Mal was playing in the guts groove long before the funky gold rush started in 1960. Addison Farmer has an effective solo before the opening theme returns.
The second section of the suite is the last track on side B. C'est Formidable is a French expression of high praise. The medium tempo piece with its beautiful harmonic structure certainly is formidable. Composer Waldron solos and there are also exchanges with Al Heath.
Ciao! (pronounced cheow) is an Italian expression used either as a greeting or when taking leave of someone. Mal heard it in Milan but says it is also used extensively in Paris. Ciao! is the third portion of the Overseas Suite. Instead of having a regular melody, Ciao! consists of a progression with an accent (representing the word ciao) placed on a different beat in each four bars. Then Waldron goes into his solo, based on blues changes, developing it by probing single lines and hot, deftly manipulated rhythmic patterns. The three members of the group become involved in a series of four bar exchanges before Mal comes back to really turn on the juice. After the Ciao! progression is re-stated, the melody from Champs Elysees returns to close the suite
In a way, the only other original in this set ties in with Mal's overseas impressions. All About Us is by Mal's wife Elaine, who some of you will remember from her vocal role on Mal/3 (New Jazz 8201). The "us" in All About Us is Mal, Elaine and their children. The song expresses the feeling they have together. Perhaps it was written in recognition of homecoming happiness for Elaine composed it at the end of 1958 when Mal came back from his Continental trip. This explains why its melody is like some little French song. "No one writes in a vacuum and I was telling her all about my trip", says Mal. "She was bound to soak up the atmosphere. I remember telling her about how the harmonicas are played there."
Mal touched it up a bit, added the chord changes et Voila. The charm and poignancy of All About Us dictate to Elaine Waldron to put her pen to paper again.
The three remaining selections appear in order on side B. They are all standards and also represent distinct impressions for Mal. When he was in London during April 1959 to do a TV show with Billie Holiday, the network gave him a studio in which to prepare the numbers for the telecast. When he had finished his rehearsal, he still felt like playing and began to work out on All The Way. Billie liked Frank Sinatra's recording and was doing it herself. "Knowing the words to a song when you are playing it in an instrumental version is a great help. It's one of the lessons I learned from Lady", Mal states.
Mal remembers With A Song In My Heart, played at a slow tempo, from his childhood. As a result, it sounds "old" to him. Another version, recorded by Sonny Rollins for Prestige in 1951, he helped sustain him when he was playing in a sad r&b group on the road in the early Fifties. "Whenever I'd get back to the hotel. I'd put Sonny's record on and it would give me a lift and renew my hope that I would be playing good music some day."
In addition to Waldron's extended improvisations on this up tempo version, Farmer has a walking solo and Heath has several choruses of exchanges with Mal that diminish in bars within each chorus.
When Mal was with Billie Holiday at the Comedy Club in Baltimore, there was a quartet opposite them. At times the horn man would leave the stand, and the trio, featuring pianist Albert Dailey, would play You Stepped Out Of A Dream. Here, Mal registers the impression that the tune and the time made on him. He does it in an easy, loping tempo with Farmer contributing a thoughtful, pizzicato solo.
Farmer, who offers solid support throughout, is once again, at this writing, a member of the Waldron trio after having seen service with brother Art Farmer and Benny Golson in the Jazztet.
The sensitive, swinging Al Heath, who also has some illustrious musical brothers (Percy & Jimmy), is now with the Jazztet, following the demise of the Jay Jay Johnson quintet.
Mal Waldron, the composer and the pianist, has given artistic expression to his impressions. Once you have heard them, I am positive that they will leave a lasting impression on you.
Notes: IRA GITLER
Maxwell Chandler on winamop.com
…I would recommend as a first foray into the works of Mal Waldron his album ”Impressions” (1958 Prestige). This was an album Mal did upon returning from a European tour with Billy Holiday and right before emigrating to Europe.
The album is a trio date and while in no way watered down, is more accessible than some of his later works. The fidelity of the album is very good with no remastering and only the original liner notes reproduced. Throughout the album the trio plays with great sympathy. On hearing this, one does not play the game of wishing “so and so” was behind the drums instead.
The album is made up of originals and some standards made their own by the trio. Center to the album is what Mal called his “Overseas Suite”(“Champs Elysees”/”Ciao”/”C’est Formidable”) which is a three sectioned suite for the trio built upon his impressions of Paris. My one bone of contention on this album is the suite is broken up by other non-suite tracks.
However, the non suite tracks are just as good. One of my favorite moments on the album is actually one of the non-suite tracks “All About Us”. The song was actually written by Mal’s wife Elaine. It is very reminiscent of the music written by Italian film director Federico Fellini’s scorer of choice Nino Rota, minus some of the saccharine touches he sometimes injects. The brushed drums and bass dance a happy waltz to the melody presented by a piano.
From the start of his solo career, Mal never settled for constructing songs as a vehicle for his solos. A song routed in the hard-bop style does not often stay there. The last part of the Overseas suite “C’est Formidable” best illustrates this. The song starts off with slow dark chords which float alone until gaining speed with percussive kisses which signal the rest of the trios entrance into the piece. Also witness in this piece how, like few other pianist at this time, Mal was able to effortlessly change the cadence of his piano with in one piece.
Initially conceived during a rehearsal for a UK television special with Billy, “All the Way” starts with a slinking piano figure, which as the piece progresses is replaced by a more vocal voicing. It is one of the few songs from the great American song book in which the absence of one of the many vocalists who have covered it is not noticeable. The same piano figure which had started the song re -enters to end it, reminding us that all we need is indeed, already right here.
Review by Scott Yanow
This CD reissue brings back one of pianist Mal Waldron's lesser-known sessions from the 1950's. Teamed up in a trio with bassist Addison Farmer and drummer Al "Tootie" Heath, Waldron performs three originals from what he called his "Overseas Suite" along with a fine song by his wife ("All About Us") and three standards. Waldron's brooding Monk-influenced style is heard in its early prime on this excellent release.
EAC.log
EAC extraction logfile from 7. January 2008, 1:26 for CD
The Mal Waldron Trio / Impressions
Used drive : HL-DT-STCDRW/DVD GCC4482 Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Used output format : C:\Eac\Codecs\flac.exe (User Defined Encoder)
320 kBit/s
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" -T "comment=EAC Flac 1.1.2 -8" %s
Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Installed external ASPI interface
Track 1
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\mal\01 - Champs Elysees.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 80.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B1065781
Copy CRC B1065781
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\mal\02 - All About Us.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.84
Peak level 65.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 91CCB0E5
Copy CRC 91CCB0E5
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\mal\03 - Ciao!.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.20
Peak level 86.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F3AE12DF
Copy CRC F3AE12DF
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\mal\04 - All the Way.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.53
Peak level 74.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 79179DBD
Copy CRC 79179DBD
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\mal\05 - With a Song in My Heart.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.22
Peak level 87.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4330A216
Copy CRC 4330A216
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\mal\06 - You Stepped Out of a Dream.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 89.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C67BFDA2
Copy CRC C67BFDA2
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\mal\07 - C'est Formidable.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.33
Peak level 92.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 177F7CF5
Copy CRC 177F7CF5
Copy OK
No errors occured
End of status report
Обложки прилагаются. Благодарности уходят dyani (nnm).