42 Facts About Mal Waldron

Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.

Mal Waldron started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college.

Mal Waldron was often an accompanist for vocalists, and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959.

Mal Waldron left the US permanently in the mid-1960s, settled in Europe, and continued touring internationally until his death.

Mal Waldron wrote for modern ballet, and composed the scores of several feature films.

Mal Waldron is known for his dissonant chord voicings and distinctive later playing style, which featured repetition of notes and motifs.

Mal Waldron was born in New York City on August 16,1925, to West Indian immigrants.

Mal Waldron's father was a mechanical engineer who worked on the Long Island Rail Road.

The family moved to Jamaica, Queens when Mal Waldron was four years old.

Mal Waldron's parents discouraged his initial interest in jazz, but he was able to maintain it by listening to swing on the radio.

Mal Waldron had classical piano lessons from the age of around seven until he was about 16.

Mal Waldron then became inspired to play jazz on tenor saxophone when he heard Coleman Hawkins' 1939 recording of "Body and Soul", but bought an alto saxophone, unable to afford a tenor.

Mal Waldron played alto for local bands that performed for "dances, bar mitzvahs, Spanish weddings", frequently taking over the pianist's role when other musicians took their solos.

In 1943, after high school and having enrolled in college, Mal Waldron was called up by the army, and was based at West Point, in New York.

Mal Waldron went on to work with Ike Quebec in New York in 1950 and made his recording debut with the saxophonist in 1952.

Mal Waldron worked frequently with Charles Mingus from 1954 to 1956, as part of the latter's jazz composers' workshop.

Mal Waldron was pianist on several Mingus recordings, including Pithecanthropus Erectus, which was a key development in the movement towards freer collective improvisation in jazz.

In 1955, Mal Waldron worked with Lucky Millinder and Lucky Thompson.

Mal Waldron formed his own band in 1956, which consisted of Idrees Sulieman, Gigi Gryce, Julian Euell, and Arthur Edgehill.

Mal Waldron was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959, including for the all-star television broadcast The Sound of Jazz.

Mal Waldron played on numerous sessions for Prestige Records from 1956 to 1958, as he was the house pianist with the label, a position he acquired after being introduced to Prestige by saxophonist Jackie McLean.

Mal Waldron often used his own arrangements and compositions for the Prestige sessions, of which his most famous, "Soul Eyes", written for Coltrane, became a widely recorded jazz standard following its initial appearance on the 1957 album Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors.

Mal Waldron composed at night at home in St Albans between all-day recording sessions, and in a car traveling to and from the studio in Hackensack.

Mal Waldron estimated that he composed more than 400 pieces of music during his time with Prestige.

Around this time, Mal Waldron's playing on his own recordings became darker, featuring emotional shifts and variations in minor keys.

In 1961, Mal Waldron played in Eric Dolphy and Booker Little's quintet, a promising combination that ended when Little died that year, aged 23.

Some recordings on which Mal Waldron played were released under his name.

Mal Waldron wrote scores for modern ballet in the 1950s and started writing film scores in the following decade.

Mal Waldron's writing for the film The Cool World was described in The Oxford Companion to Jazz as one of the first attempts to stress improvisation rather than composition in a jazz-based film score.

In 1963 Mal Waldron had a major breakdown caused by a heroin overdose.

Mal Waldron recounted in 1998 that a lot of musicians in the 1950s and 1960s felt that taking drugs was necessary for career progression.

Mal Waldron always felt that he had to return to playing, but this was a slow process.

Mal Waldron originally moved to France when film director Marcel Carne asked him if he wanted to compose the score for Three Rooms in Manhattan in New York or Paris; Mal Waldron's 1958 experience touring Europe with Holiday made the decision an easy one.

Mal Waldron's stated reasons for settling in Europe were his disgust with the "fierce, cutthroat competition, just to get a job" and the fact that black musicians were paid less than their white counterparts in the US The 1965 score for Three Rooms in Manhattan was followed by one for the American film Sweet Love, Bitter in 1967.

Mal Waldron composed for theater, television, and short films.

Mal Waldron became popular in Japan, first playing there in 1970, after being invited by Swing Journal following the success of one of his earlier recordings.

Around the same period, Mal Waldron recorded several albums with vocalist Jeanne Lee.

Mal Waldron was 77, and had played his final concert in Lille two weeks earlier.

When he first played with Mingus, Mal Waldron was a follower of Horace Silver's style, which used added chords and passing notes, as well as Bud Powell's, which contained many runs.

Mal Waldron used thick chords in the lower bass register; his emphasis on weight, texture and frequent repetition of a single and simple motif as opposed to linear and melodic improvisation gave a heavy and dark color to his sound.

Mal Waldron acknowledged the influences of Holiday, Mingus, and Roach, as well as pianists Duke Ellington, Monk, Powell and Art Tatum.

Mal Waldron contributed more personally to Ran Blake's progress: he was Blake's teacher for a time, helping him to improve his rhythmic flexibility and idea development.