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Jazz Articles about Cedar Walton
Cedar Walton: Seasoned Wood
by Douglas Payne
Pianist Cedar Walton has long been the perfect accompanist for so many other leaders. He's written quite a few of jazz's few “standards" over the last half century as well. For four decades now, he's also been an outstanding leader, waxing dozens of discs that win plenty of critical plaudits but never seem to bring him the solo success he deserves. Consider how fellow pianists Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner and even Herbie Hancock} gave up doing other people's sessions at ...
Continue ReadingClifford Jordan: Glass Bead Games
by Robert Iannapollo
Perennially underrated saxophonist Clifford Jordan recorded two of his best albums for the Strata East label and Glass Bead Games is arguably his greatest recording and one of the great albums of the 1970s. Everything is right about this date; Jordan never sounded so good, his tone rich and full, his improvisatory ideas taking the models of Coltrane and Rollins and giving them his own twist. Recorded on a “stormy Monday, October 29, 1973," it was originally issued as a ...
Continue ReadingCedar Walton Trio and Dale Barlow: Manhattan After Midnight
by AAJ Italy Staff
Dispiace dirlo, ma questo disco non sarà certo annoverato tra le opere più significative di Cedar Walton. Grande pianista, dal fraseggio elegantissimo, è qui imprigionato in un progetto anonimo. Certo il jazz praticato dal suo quartetto non mancherà di suscitare l’interesse di quanti amano quel mainstream ancorato alla grande tradizione. Piacevole ed a tratti energico, il percorso proposto è per lo più alimentato nonché guidato dal sassofonista australiano Dale Barlow. Solista indubbiamente dotato, dalla voce possente e fluente nel richiamarsi ...
Continue ReadingGlass Bead Games
by Samuel Chell
"I suddenly realized that in the language of the Glass Bead Game every symbol and combination of symbols led not to single examples but into the center, the mystery and innermost heart of the world, into primal knowledge."---Hermann HesseClifford Jordan was a soulful, powerful, deeply thoughtful Chicago tenor player who, though sought after by pianist Horace Silver and praised by fellow saxophonist Sonny Rollins, was fated to be the Lester Young of his era, misunderstood and often overlooked ...
Continue ReadingCedar Walton: One Flight Down
by Joel Roberts
Cedar Walton has been a first-call hard bop pianist for almost as long as there's been hard-bop. In a splendid, though often underappreciated, career spanning six decades, he's had notable stints in the bands of giants like JJ Johnson, Lee Morgan, Art Farmer and Art Blakey, while also leading well-respected groups of his own. Now, at seventy-two, he's one of the elder statesmen of the hard-bop genre and one of the true living legends of jazz piano. ...
Continue ReadingCedar Walton: Underground Memoirs
by Russ Musto
Widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential pianist/composers in jazz today, Cedar Walton's Underground Memoirs is only this master's fourth solitary outing (the first since 1992's memorable Live At Maybeck Recital Hall). A singular stylist with an exuberantly bluesy, yet harmonically advanced approach, Walton's sound is instantly recognizable in the context of a group, but here, alone at the piano, he plays in an exceptionally introspective manner where his identity is not as quickly revealed.
Continue ReadingCedar Walton
by Russ Musto
Cedar Walton cut his chops with several great groups, including J.J. Johnson's Quintet and the Jazztet, before making a name for himself with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Since graduating from that venerable institution he's become one of the most in demand pianists in jazz. These days he spends most of his time traveling the world leading his trio. AAJ caught him at his home in Brooklyn having just returned from playing a Caribbean cruise, following a week in ...
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