Mal Waldron - 1970
‘Down at the Gills’ is from Mal Waldron’s live 1970 album “Blood and Guts”. The very first ECM recording called “Free at Last” introduced us to this hypnotic Drone style the year before. Waldron would pursue this unique approach to the “Collective Form” for the rest of his career.
It is truly extraordinary to compare Mal Waldron’s 1958 compositions “Empty Street’, ‘Blue Gene’ and ‘Gospel Truth’ (Link) to this 1970s composition. They may seem a world apart but both possess an earthy honesty that is undeniable.
We talked a bit about how “Drones” were important in “Open Forms” (Link). The Drone is a pedal note, riff or some other repetition that sets up a “base camp” for the improviser to work from. Mal Waldron ran with this idea and applied it to “Collective Forms”.
The music speaks for itself for the most part but we should highlight a couple of important points. Rhythmic ’Pulse’ (Link) is a key element here. Western notation doesn’t allow for the separation of Pattern and Pulse which makes accurate transcription impossible. It is very reminiscent of the polyrhythmic complexity of West African drum layering. Listening and imitating Waldron is the key to finding this groove.
If we describe the left hand as a Drone we might think of the right hand as a “Chant”. It too is pattern driven, moving augmented triads around at will. Example 1 shows the chant as a series of chords. Practice them as chords and different arpeggios. This is similar to what we did with Bley’s ‘Batterie’ (Link).
Special mention should be made of the classic 1981 album “What It Is”. A wholly-formed entry point to this style of music (Link).
