Mal Waldron

One of the first Enja records, the fourth in the catalogue according to AllMusic, recorded live at the Domicile club in Munich in June 1971. Mal Waldron in trio with Jimmy Woode, the former Ellington bassist, and the Swiss drummer Pierre Favre. The same trio made Mal Waldron Plays the Blues for the label the same year.

Four Waldron originals (Sieg Haile, La gloire du noir, The Call, Rock My Soul) and Woode's brief M.C.. AllMusic's note describes a master of repetition and brooding chords in excellent form, playing with knowledge of the avant-garde but still connected to the hard bop tradition. That is the Waldron of 1971: two years after Free at Last, the first ECM record, and already settled into the European trio format that would carry him through the decade.

For anyone who came to Waldron through the Lacy duos or the later ballad records, this is where the dark, hammered style is at its most concentrated. The Enja series from here (A Touch of the Blues, Hard Talk, One-Upmanship) follows.

Japanese CD edition from Solid's Enja Real Jazz Classics series.