Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy first played and recorded together in 1958, when Waldron was the house pianist for Prestige Records and the soprano saxophonist was making his second album for the label’s New Jazz imprint. That album, called Reflections: Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk, is a wonderful exploration of Monk tunes at a time when programs of only Monk songs was a rarity. Lacy and Waldron bonded over their mutual love of Monk. Waldron went through a very rough period in the Sixties, after a breakdown caused by a drug overdose. Treatment left him without the ability to play piano, and he relearned it over several years. His sound had grown darker and somewhat obsessive when he re-emerged late in the decade. He settled in Munich in 1967. Lacy became an expatriate as well, moving to Paris in 1970. Their proximity in Europe led to a reunion in 1971 when they made Journey Without End, a quartet session recorded for the Japanese Victor label. The continued to meet in studios and on stage throughout the Seventies, Eighties, and the early Nineties. Their work, recorded once or twice a year in a wide variety of formats including duets, has been documented on many different labels in Europe and Japan, and finally, in 1990, on an American label, with the duo set Hot House for Novus. The release of The Mighty Warriors brings their awe-inspiring collaboration to a rousing conclusion, with 98 minutes of music from a 1993 concert celebrating Waldron’s 70th birthday in Antwerp, Belgium. Bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille are on hand to help “lift the bandstand,” a saying of Monk’s that Lacy took to heart. “That's magic, man,” he said in an interview, “when the bandstand levitates. I didn't know how to do it but I knew what he was talking about. Old dreams but they're still valid." The professionally recorded tapes of the concert were in the archive of Patrick Wilen, son of Belgian saxophonist Barney Wilen. The program, which was played without an intermission, starts with a lengthy version of Waldron's hard-driving What It Is, a perennial feature of Waldron’s set after its initial appearance on a 1981 quartet session. Epistrophy follows, the first of two Monk pieces that surround Lacy’s recent Monk-like composition Longing. Workman’s mini-suite Variation of III gives everyone a chance in the spotlight. The concert ends with a spectacular excursion through Snake Out, an insistent Waldron original that was frequently performed by Waldron after it debuted on a 1973 Enja album that featured Workman and drummer Billy Higgins. Among the many highlights of the Antwerp performance are Cyrille’s beautifully constructed solo on Monk’s Dream and his no holds barred assault on Snake Out, the interplay between Waldron’s piano and Workman’s bass on Variation of III, Lacy’s wide-ranging solo on Snake Out, and Waldron’s unaccompanied introspective solo Variations on a Theme by Cecil Taylor, curiously played before the return to the theme of Snake Out. The booklet, filled with Hugo Peeters’ black and white photographs of the performance, includes informative liner notes by Adam Shatz, a reminiscence by Hiromi Waldron (Mal Waldron’s widow), and reflections by Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman, Jane Bunnett, David Virelles, Dave Liebman, Vijay Iyer, and Evan Parker. Together, these personal and musical memories help to paint a fuller picture of their long-running collaboration. Great music in superb sound, loving comments, and pictures of the band on stage: what more could you ask? Heartily recommended.
Elemental Music 5990446 [CD; also on vinyl]; Steve Lacy (ss) Mal Waldron (p) Reggie Workman (b) Andrew Cyrille (d); Antwerp, Belgium, September 30, 1995; Disc 1 (48:32): What It Is/ Epistrophy/ Longing/ Monk’s Dream. Disc 2 (50:11): Variation of III/ Medley: Snake Out, Variations on a Theme by Cecil Taylor. www.elemental-music.com
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