Mal Waldron – The Call

Great piece on this album by the good folks at Aquarium Drunkard here: https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/03/04/mal-waldron-the-call/

This album features some very funky jazzy keyboards, with a classic electric piano sound (Fender Rhodes?). It's Waldron at perhaps his most accessible, with tight interplay with Jimmy Jackson on keyboards too, and a tight rhythm section that lays down some wonderful grooves here. It is a shame this album is not more widely released and heard. I think someone could do an amazing remix of this.

There also is an excellent alternate recording of the title track, The Call, featuring half the players from this Japo/ECM recording, Mal & Jimmy, backed by the German rock/fusion band Embryo. This was my introduction to Waldron, and led me to be very happy finding a copy of Waldron's version of it too.

Mal Waldron was active in the New York jazz scene of the 1950's but moved to Munich Germany in 1965. Around 1967 he was backed by a couple of hippies who went on to form the krautrock group Embryo. Later, some of those 1967 recordings featuring Waldron and members of Embryo got released as Embryo's CD 'For Eva' in the 1990s.

In 1973, Waldron and Jimmy Jackson, who also plays organ on this release, recorded with Embryo and did a version of 'The Call', released on the Embryo albums Steig Aus (aka This Is Embryo) and also both play on another Embryo album, Rocksessions.

Embryo has also worked closely with Charlie Mariano and Trilok Gurtu, as well as dozens of obscure musicians as they've toured Africa, Asia and the Middle East jamming with local musicians. They've got roots in the German jazz of the 60's and 70's and also head off into their own funky hippie spacey world of improvisation in a way that I think any fan of The Call would enjoy.