Mal-icious

I communed with the spirits of three musicians the other night.  Mal Waldron, Reggie Workman, Billy Higgins and I met at a cosmic astral plane while my poor human body lay on the floor in an unlit room well after midnight.  The out-of-body experience facilitated by Up Popped the Devil was entirely unexpected.

I was inspired to play the obscure European release after reading a The New York Times feature about an outlandish record label’s plans to reissue one of Waldron’s albums for Prestige.  Knowing the pianist’s work from the ‘50s doesn’t interest me, I crassly opted for the 1973 session based on its odd album title and excellent cover art.

The trio’s hypnotically transportive playing stunned me.  How could I not have known about Waldron’s two radically distinct careers?  I’ve since learned that he had a mental breakdown in 1963.  The music Waldron made after the trauma is just as idiosyncratic and almost as innovative as the work of Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor. 

Waldron explains his approach in the illuminating documentary “A Portrait of Mal Waldron”.  He says “when I play piano I’m trying to find things... it’s always a constant search.”  As Waldron’s newest convert, I’ve joined his search party.  My initial exploration into his dozens of late-career albums- including the maiden voyage of ECM Records- has just begun.  Hours of ecstatic delirium await.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)

The quarantine soundtrack at my compound has gone sideways.  Much to the chagrin of my lockdown partner, harsh music dominates my recent playlist.  The noise-induced epiphanies I’ve experienced remind me of the final track on Sun Ra’s Lanquidity.  I couldn’t deal with “There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)” when I bought the album as a new release in 1978.  Only now do I realize the song was an exhortation from the future.  Diligent autodidactic training during the subsequent 42 years finally allows me to expertly appraise and fully appreciate new music by Lil Baby and Martin Bresnick and old works by the likes of Mal Waldron and Alexander Borodin.


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I’m the primary contributor (the emojis aren't mine) to KCUR’s Adventure newsletter about locally based musicians’ entries in the Tiny Desk Contest.

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I call out Kansas City’s cultural provincialism in a Plastic Sax post.

(Original image of a Mediterranean sunset in Acre by There Stands the Glass.)