# Mal Waldron, jazz pianist, is dead

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 6, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050 "2002-12-06T23:33:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050/1 "2002-12-06T23:33:26Z")

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[Mal Waldron](http://www.locusmag.com/index/t80.html#A9873), of whom all the obits’ first lines will say was Billie Holliday’s last pianist, died in Brussels at the age of 77.

I’ll miss him…I heard him play several times at the Village Vanguard in the '80s and early '90s (he stopped coming back to NYC when the jazz clubs banned smoking in the mid-'90s). His duet album with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, HOT HOUSE (1991) and his combo album MY DEAR FAMILY (1996) get regular play around here, not to mention the dozens of albums in my collection where he’s a sideman.

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**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050/2 "2002-12-06T23:46:54Z")

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Do any obits mention his prominent place in Frank O’Hara’s great poem about “The Day Lady Died”?

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**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050/3 "2002-12-07T01:01:46Z")

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I just sat down at the piano to learn _Soul Eyes_, in tribute. What a beautiful tune.

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**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050/4 "2002-12-07T01:06:07Z")

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Damn. Just ran up to get my “real book,” to do the same thing. Not in there. It should be between Herbie Hancock’s “The Sorceror” and Miles Davis’s “So What,” and it’s not.

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**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050/5 "2002-12-07T01:52:39Z")

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It’s in v. 2.

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**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050/6 "2002-12-07T01:54:15Z")

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That was one of the first tunes a jazz teacher ever gave me; it was too hard at the time. I wish I had an album Waldron’s on…

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mal-waldron-jazz-pianist-is-dead/141050/7 "2002-12-09T15:45:03Z")

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_Noooooo!_ I didn’t even know he was sick!

[Did he ever play backup for Adele Jergens?]