Left Alone Revisited

Description

Mal Waldron, the resident pianist during the last years of Billie Holiday, thus ended his life with a recording dedicated to the singer he loved so much. A perfect ending, as the loop seems to be closed. In 2002, it was with Archie Shepp that the pianist once again explored the repertoire of his former boss. The meeting is all the more interesting: these two men were at one time the champions of free jazz, after being trained in classical bop. Waldron with Billie, Shepp with Coltrane. As they aged, both reined in their anger, and a minimalist wisdom replaced the storms of yesterday. The pianist is more monk-like than ever, and Shepp now evokes Coleman Hawkins. But years of boldness and explorations of all kinds cannot be erased with old age. Throughout these ten tracks, classics of Billie, the two men continue to surprise and express themselves in a language of dazzling clarity. "Left Alone Revisited," Mal Waldron's last gift, is an album that we will not soon forget. "Their left alone is a declaration of love to Billie Holiday that they met at 15. They play the songs with a precision, a finesse that no desire to dismantle can spoil. Pure Wonder." --- LE MONDE ---. "Two 'legends' of modern jazz meet for the first time in duo to pay tribute to Billie Holiday!" --- LE MONDE ---. "The entire work of Archie Shepp is an act of memory. The artistic decision is intimately linked to this requirement. Improvisation, which determines the forms of the idiom, always singularized, is coupled with an inscription in the fabric of a collective memory, that of the founding event in the history of Africans." --- FRANCE CULTURE ---. Mal Waldron's first tribute to Billie Holiday, titled Left Alone, was recorded in 1959, just a few months before the singer's death. In 2002, he teamed up with tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp to pay tribute to the legendary singer with the CD Left Alone Revisited, which will likely be his last tribute to Holiday. Waldron, who passed away less than a year after these sessions, was the last pianist of Holiday, and he interprets Shepp's expressive and vibrant saxophone as if it were the reincarnation of the singer. A pianist renowned for his powerful and striking playing, Waldron often appears here as sober and delicate, and his subtle interventions inspire Shepp to new melodies - like the fluid and slightly hoarse lyricism of the saxophonist on "Nice Work If You Can Get It" or his hoarse and enchanting singing, blending saxophone and voice, on his own composition "Blues for 52nd Street." But Shepp's fragile and strangled playing in the high notes of the ballads is a central and poignant element of the album. A jazz collaboration of discreet singularity - and now irreplaceable. Waldron perfectly masters his interpretations of the six standards present on this disc, as well as his own version of "Lady Sings the Blues." Their poignant interpretation of "Left Alone" (the occasional squeaks of Shepp's reed seem intentional, as if to imitate the breaks in his voice) is also striking. Shepp switches to soprano saxophone for an emotional version of "Everything Happens to Me" and "I Only Have Eyes for You." THIS INSTRUMENTAL TRIBUTE TO BILLIE HOLIDAY IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ALBUMS EVER MADE TO HONOR HER MEMORY.