Search - Mal Waldron :: Mal 2

AN LP AND A HALF - 66 mins

John M. | 07/21/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There are two sextet groups featured on this 66 min CD. Tracks 1-5 have Bill Hardman-trumpet, Jackie McLean-alto sax, and John Coltrane-tenor sax. Tracks 6-8 feature Idrees Sulieman-trumpet Sahib Shihab-alto sax and Coltrane again on tenor. They recorded a full LPs worth of music with the first group then scatched 2 tunes,brought in a second group and recorded 3 more. This CD gives you all of it. Indeed one of the originally omited tunes the 11 min- Falling In Love With Love- is my favorite. McLean plays a great solo between Hardman and Coltrane. It's all pretty much hard boppish with Mal, as on MAL 1, acting pretty much like a sideman, although he takes the first solo on- J.M.'s Dream Doll and plays the melody front and back on Blue Calypso which has a lot of 4/4 blowing passages on it.----Another good sextet date from this period is drummer Art Taylor's TAYLOR'S WAILERS with Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, and Charlie Rouse in the front line."

A classic

Kim | Boston, MA | 11/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was one of the first Mal Waldron albums (yes it was an album) that I ever owned and I love it now as much as I did 20 some odd years ago. It's more straight-ahead and traditionally melodic than his later work."