Mal Waldron had an incredible 50 year career, playing piano on more than 170 albums. He was an accompanist for Billy Holiday, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Charles Mingus to name a few. He would later develop a unique style of playing that worked well with the most avant-garde players of the day (Link). We will have a look at that refined language a bit later but these pieces hint at his encyclopedic knowledge of the jazz tradition. The first is an eight bar blues, the second is a twelve bar blues and the third is an eight bar gospel song. Lots of room to stretch out here!