Mal Waldron and David Friesen
Encounters
Muse Records (US) 1985
MR 5305 (LP)
sleeve : VG+(wear on corners, some dirts.)
media : EX/EX(some slightly noise.)
A superb 1985 collaboration between American pianist Mal Waldron—who remained active at the highest level for nearly five decades, from the 1950s through the early 2000s, and whose astonishing jazz-rock outing The Call, issued as the very first release on the Japo label, has long been a favorite in our shop—and American bassist David Friesen, an exceptional player with an outstanding body of work both as a leader and as a sideman. The two would later appear together on Waldron’s One Entrance from 1983, featuring Joe Henderson among others, as well as on Dedication, released on Soul Note in 1988, but this LP marks their very first recording as a duo. Friesen’s bass work is truly remarkable throughout, shadowing and deepening Waldron’s masterful, deeply evocative piano with great sensitivity. The result is a beautiful contemporary jazz record filled with the lyrical atmosphere so distinctive of this period in Waldron’s career. The closing track B3, with its contrast between a minimal low-end refrain and the main melodic line, is classic Waldron through and through—and absolutely stunning.
A2: Encounters
B1: Night Wind
B3: Outside’s Inside Too