A Foggy Day (Charles Mingus’s version)

Jackie McLean (alto sax), J. R. Monterose (tenor saxophone), Mal Waldron (piano), Charles Mingus (bass) and Willie Jones (drums). From the album Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956).

Mal Waldron was an American jazz pianist, arranger and composer who played in the hard bop and post-bop styles. His first recording was with the saxophonist Ike Quebec in 1952. He worked frequently with Charles Mingus from 1954 to 1956 and recorded several albums with him, among them Pithecanthropus Erectus, in which the group plays in a more collective and free way. In 1955 he played with Lucky Millinder and Lucky Thompson, and in 1956 he formed his own band, with whom he recorded his first album as a leader. From 1957 he was Billie Holliday’s regular accompanist until her death in 1959.

From 1956 to 1958 he was the house pianist of Prestige Records and recorded with Jackie McClean, Kenny Burrell, Phil Woods, Gene Ammons and John Coltrane. He also composed the theme “Soul Eyes” for Coltrane, which became a jazz standard. He composed more than 400 songs while he was with Prestige. Jazz critic John S. Wilson said of him that he was “a consistently interesting and inventive pianist, who apparently can create fresh and provocative ideas even in the midst of a shrilling bedlam.”

As an introduction, horns, whistles and a cymbal are played, as well as the double bass with bow, piano and tenor saxophone playing random notes, until Mingus establishes the walking and Monterose exposes the subject in the middle of all kinds of noises before playing a fairly conventional solo. He is followed by Waldron with a lot of swing and a coherent and balanced discourse. Next Mingus comes in making a suggestive solo with reminiscences of bebop and then McClean arrives building well measured phrases. At the end, the group re-exposes the theme and the noises are heard again.