Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy Sempre Amore

Avid Jazz continues with its Four Classic album series with a re-mastered 2CD release by Steve Lacy, complete with original artwork and liner notes.
“Soprano Sax”; “Reflections - Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk” “The Straight Horn Of Steve Lacy”; and “Evidence”.
Born in New York City, Steven Norman Lackritz (better known to jazz fans as Steve Lacy ) was one of a rare breed of jazz men to play the soprano sax, almost exclusively. Other famously few players include Sidney Bechet, Johnny Hodges and occasionally John Coltrane. For a musician starting life in a Dixieland jazz band playing alongside such greats as Henry “Red” Allen and Pee Wee Russell, Steve Lacys jazz journey may look an unexpected one…

One of the great soprano saxophonists of all time (ranking up there with Sidney Bechet and John Coltrane), Steve Lacy's career was fascinating to watch develop. He originally doubled on clarinet and soprano (dropping the former by the mid-'50s), inspired by Bechet, and played Dixieland in New York with Rex Stewart, Cecil Scott, Red Allen, and other older musicians during 1952-1955. He debuted on record in a modernized Dixieland format with Dick Sutton in 1954. However, Lacy soon jumped over several styles to play free jazz with Cecil Taylor during 1955-1957. They recorded together and performed at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. Lacy recorded with Gil Evans in 1957 (they would work together on an irregular basis into the 1980s), was with Thelonious Monk's quintet in 1960 for four months, and then formed a quartet with Roswell Rudd (1961-1964) that exclusively played Monk's music; only one live set (for Emanen in 1963) resulted from that very interesting group. 6 original albums from the soprano sax maestro including works with Don Cherry & Gil Evans; Soprano Sax, Plays Theloniuous Monk, Straight Horn Of.., Evidence, Gil Evans & Ten, Great Jazz Standards.

When Mal Waldron died in 2002, he was known to most jazz fans as Billie Holiday's final accompanist, and the composer of the standards "Soul Eyes," "Left Alone," and "Straight Ahead," the latter with Abbey Lincoln. His most significant leader date was 1961's The Quest, with Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervin on Prestige, where he served as house pianist. After suffering a total breakdown following a near-fatal heroin overdose in 1963, he was forced to relearn the piano. He left for Europe in early 1966, and his "second life" began. Waldron's many solo recordings, beginning with 1966's All Alone, are tantamount to the creation of a different jazz language. Its traits were angular, quizzical repetitive left-hand vamps and chords, underscored and appended by inquisitive harmonic inquiries on the right, drawn chiefly from the blues but also the jazz tradition and classical music from Chopin to Schoenberg…

Digitally remastered edition including three bonus tracks. In April-September 1957, John Coltrane and Mal Waldron embarked on a series of all star sessions which were issued on the albums MAL/2 and WHEELIN' AND DEALIN', with further material from the sessions appearing later on an LP titled THE DEALERS. This release contains the complete sessions including all existing material from the aforementioned LPs, plus three further Coltrane-Waldron collaborations recorded that same year.

Mal Waldron's recording debut as a leader presents the pianist with his many gifts already well developed. For the 1956 quartet date, he takes charge to strike a balance between the sound of a blowing session and the refinement of a more polished date. The spontaneity is there, but the set also benefits from Waldron's thoughtful charts. At this stage of his development, Waldron was a distinctive bop pianist whose occasional sputtering, knotty phrasing revealed the acknowledged influence of Thelonious Monk, as well as similarities with contemporaries Al Haig and Bud Powell. For this set, though, the focus is not on Waldron's playing, but on his ability to lead from the piano bench…

Mal Waldron was a remarkably versatile piano player, able to work in many different contexts, from Billie Holiday to Eric Dolphy. This ability made him invaluable as musical director for Prestige Records, where the recording dates were often little more than jam sessions. Soul Eyes: The Mal Waldron Memorial Album collects 11 tracks, recorded between 1955 and 1962, that Waldron played on and/or led, including a mammoth version of the title cut, featuring John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, and others, that clocks in at 17-plus minutes. Although all the cuts have been previously released (not always under Waldron's name), it's nice to have this overview of one of his most fertile periods.

Digitally remastered edition including three bonus tracks. In April-September 1957, John Coltrane and Mal Waldron embarked on a series of all star sessions which were issued on the albums MAL/2 and WHEELIN' AND DEALIN', with further material from the sessions appearing later on an LP titled THE DEALERS. This release contains the complete sessions including all existing material from the aforementioned LPs, plus three further Coltrane-Waldron collaborations recorded that same year.

Before becoming an expatriate in 1965 and eventually settling in Munich, pianist Mal Waldron cut several stateside hard bop albums full of his idiosyncratic and Monk-ish piano work, and featuring choice contributions by some of the music's finest. For this 1957 date, Waldron worked with a stellar sextet interchangeably manned by John Coltrane, Jackie McLean, Idrees Sulieman, Art Taylor, and others. Bookended by the pianist's ebullient "Potpourri" and the avant-noir blues "One by One," the set also includes a fetching cover of Cole Porter's "From This Moment On" and a beautifully complex arrangement of Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain." (Waldron was Holiday's accompanist for the last two years of the singer's life until her death in 1959)…