Mal Waldron
Free At Last (LP)
LabelECM RecordsGenreJazz & Improvisation
Out of stock
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condition (record/cover): NM / EX
Promotional copy. Gatefold sleeve. Insert included.
Catalogue number one. When Manfred Eicher started ECM in 1969 the first record he made was not a Nordic reverb exercise but a hard, insistent piano trio date by an American in European exile. Mal Waldron had been Billie Holiday's accompanist and had recorded with Coltrane and Dolphy before a breakdown in 1963 cost him his ability to play; he rebuilt it from nothing, and what emerged was this: obsessive repetition of small figures, enormous left-hand weight, and a refusal of ornament that sounds almost minimalist. Nothing on the label ever sounded quite like it again.
Original ECM pressing. Where the most influential jazz label of the last fifty years begins, and a superb record on its own terms.
Release notes
FIRST EVER RELEASE / GATEFOLD / INCLUDES BOOKLET / BLACK BACK COVER This record was the start and first release of ECM Records (ECM 1001) Recorded on November 24, 1969 at the Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg.
| A1 | Rat Now | 10:15 | |
| A2 | Balladina | 5:01 | |
| A3 | 1-3-234 | 4:01 | |
| B1 | Rock My Soul | 11:23 | |
| B2 | Willow Weep For Me | 7:31 | |
| B3 | Boo | 3:25 |
- Isla Eckinger
- Bass
- Rufus Vedder
- Design [Cover]
- Clarence Becton
- Drums
- Kurt Rapp
- Engineer
- Manfred Eicher
- Engineer [Supervision]
- Mal Waldron
- Piano, Liner Notes [Back Cover Text], Written-By (A1 to A3, B1, B3)
- Jazz By Post
- Producer
- Manfred Scheffner
- Producer
- Ann Ronell
- Written-By (B2)
