Cedar Walton
Cedar Anthony Walton, Jr. was an American hard bop jazz pianist. He came to prominence as a member of drummer Art Blakey's band before establishing a long career as a bandleader and composer. Several of his compositions have become jazz standards, including "Mosaic", "Bolivia", "Holy Land", "Mode for Joe" and "Fantasy in D".
Early life
Walton was born and grew up in Dallas, Texas. His mother Ruth was an aspiring concert pianist, and was Walton's initial teacher. She also took him to jazz performances around Dallas. Walton cited Nat King Cole, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Art Tatum as his major influences on piano. He began emulating recordings of these artists from an early age.After briefly attending Dillard University in New Orleans, he went to the University of Denver as a composition major originally, but was encouraged to switch to a music education program targeted to set up a career in the local public school system. This switch later proved extremely useful since Walton learned to play and arrange for various instruments, a talent he would hone with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
Walton was tempted by the promise of New York City through his associations with John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Richie Powell, whom he met at various after-hours sessions around the city of Denver, Colorado. In 1955, he decided to leave school and drove with a friend to New York City. He quickly got recognition from Johnny Garry, who ran Birdland at that time.
Later life and career
Walton was drafted into the U.S. Army, and stationed in Germany, cutting short his rising status in the after-hours scene. While in the Army, he played with musicians Leo Wright, Don Ellis, and Eddie Harris. Upon his discharge after two years, Walton picked up where he left off, playing as a sideman with Kenny Dorham, Joining the Jazztet, led by Benny Golson and Art Farmer, Walton played with this group from 1958 to 1961. In April 1959, he recorded an alternate take of "Giant Steps" with John Coltrane, though he did not solo.In the early 1960s, Walton joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers as a pianist-arranger for three years, on the same day as Freddie Hubbard. In this group, which also featured Wayne Shorter, he demonstrated a keen sense of arranging in originals such as "Ugetsu" and "Mosaic". He left the Messengers in 1964 and by the late 1960s was part of the house rhythm section at Prestige Records, where in addition to releasing his own recordings, he recorded with Sonny Criss, Pat Martino, Eric Kloss, and Charles McPherson. For a year, he served as Abbey Lincoln's accompanist, and recorded with Lee Morgan from 1966 to 1968. During the mid-1970s, he led the funk group Mobius. Walton arranged and recorded for Etta James from the mid 1990s helping her to win a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album for in 1994.
Many of Walton's compositions have been adopted as jazz standards, including "Firm Roots", "Bolivia", "Holy Land", "Mode for Joe" and "Cedar's Blues". "Bolivia" is perhaps his best-known composition, while one of his oldest is "Fantasy in D", recorded under the title "Ugetsu" by Art Blakey in 1963, and as "Polar AC" by Freddie Hubbard, first in 1971.
In January 2010, Walton was inducted as a member of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters.
After a brief illness, Walton died on August 19, 2013, at his home in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 79.
Billy Higgins Partnership and "The Magic Triangle"
Walton played and recorded with drummer Billy Higgins from the mid-1960s through the 1990s. Higgins and Walton first recorded together in 1965 for Eddie Harris's The In Sound LP, and Higgins played drums on Walton's first album, the 1967 recording Cedar!. Walton and Higgins went on to play and record together regularly throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1970s, bassist Sam Jones formed a working trio with Walton and Higgins that the group members called The Magic Triangle. The trio recorded albums under the leadership of both Walton and Jones, and were backing musicians on several 1970s albums by Art Farmer and Clifford Jordan. Though Walton, Jones, and Higgins did not record under the name The Magic Triangle, Jordan's albums Clifford Jordan and the Magic Triangle on Stage, Firm Roots, and The Highest Mountain referenced the trio's informal name in the titles. The trio also backed up Hank Mobley, Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, and Idrees Sulieman in the 1970s on live and studio recordings. Drummer Louis Hayes replaced Higgins in the trio on occasion during this period for recordings and live performances. In 1975, the Magic Triangle trio became the core of the Eastern Rebellion jazz collective, which featured saxophonists George Coleman, Bob Berg and Ralph Moore, trombonist Curtis Fuller, and trumpeter Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros. Eastern Rebellion released seven albums between 1975 and 1994, all featuring Walton and Higgins.Sam Jones died in late 1981, and Walton and Higgins carried on as a trio with bassist David "Happy" Williams, who also joined the pair on the four final Eastern Rebellion recordings. The trio of Walton, Williams, and Higgins recorded regularly throughout the 1980s and early 1990s under Walton's leadership. During this time, Walton and Higgins also appeared together as backing musicians on recordings by Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Slide Hampton, Junior Cook, Bobby Hutcherson, Frank Morgan, and Jackie McLean.
With bassist Ron Carter, Walton and Higgins recorded two live albums in 1991 at the Sweet Basil Jazz Club under the name The Sweet Basil Trio. A third Sweet Basil Trio record, this time with Williams playing bass, was recorded in 1993.
Writing of The Magic Triangle's collaborations with Clifford Jordan, pianist and essayist Ethan Iverson wrote "Taken as a collection, the Jordan-Walton canon from the seventies is some of the best jazz ever recorded....If I had to pick only one from that collaboration for a desert isle, it would be Jordan’s Night of the Mark VII."
Discography
As leader/co-leader
- 1967: Cedar!
- 1968: Spectrum
- 1969: The Electric Boogaloo Song
- 1969: Soul Cycle
- 1972: Breakthrough! with Hank Mobley
- 1973: A Night at Boomers, Vol. 1
- 1973: A Night at Boomers, Vol. 2
- 1974: Firm Roots
- 1974: Pit Inn
- 1975: Mobius
- 1976: The Pentagon
- 1976: Beyond Mobius
- 1977: First Set
- 1977: Second Set
- 1977: Third Set
- 1978: Animation
- 1979: Charmed Circle
- 1980: Soundscapes
- 1980: The Maestro with Abbey Lincoln
- 1981: Piano Solos
- 1981: Heart & Soul with Ron Carter
- 1982: Among Friends
- 1983: The All American Trio with Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette
- 1985: Cedar's Blues
- 1985: The Trio 1
- 1985: The Trio 2
- 1985: The Trio 3
- 1985: Cedar Walton
- 1985: Bluesville Time
- 1986: Blues for Myself
- 1986: Cedar Walton Plays
- 1988: Standards with the VIP Trio
- 1988: Standards Vol 2 with the VIP Trio
- 1990: Duo with David Williams
- 1990: As Long as There's Music
- 1992: Cedar Walton at Maybeck
- 1992: Manhattan Afternoon
- 1996: Composer
- 1997: Roots
- 2001: The Promise Land
- 2002: Latin Tinge
- 2005: Underground Memoirs
- 2005: Midnight Waltz
- 2006: One Flight Down
- 2008: Seasoned Wood
- 2009: Voices Deep Within
- 2010: Cedar Chest
- 2011: The Bouncer
- 1975: Eastern Rebellion with George Coleman, Sam Jones & Billy Higgins
- 1977: Eastern Rebellion 2 with Bob Berg, Sam Jones & Billy Higgins
- 1979: Eastern Rebellion 3 with Curtis Fuller, Bob Berg, Sam Jones & Billy Higgins
- 1983: Eastern Rebellion 4 with Curtis Fuller, Bob Berg, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, David Williams & Billy Higgins
- 1990: Mosaic with Ralph Moore, David Williams & Billy Higgins
- 1992: Simple Pleasure with Ralph Moore, David Williams & Billy Higgins
- 1994: Just One of Those... Nights at the Village Vanguard with Ralph Moore, David Williams & Billy Higgins
- 1982: It's Timeless
- 1983: Timeless Heart
- 1986: Essence
- 1991: Time for the Timeless All Stars
As sideman
- God Bless Jug and Sonny
- Left Bank Encores
- Mosaic
- Three Blind Mice
- Caravan
- Ugetsu
- Buhaina's Delight
- Free for All
- Kyoto
- Indestructible
- Golden Boy
- Buhaina
- Anthenagin
- Something for Lester
- Sunup to Sundown
- Slow Drag
- Blackjack
- Elegy in Blue
- The Almoravid
- Somethin's Cookin
- Broken Shadows
- Katumbo
- Giant Steps
- Cedars of Avalon
- Up, Up and Away
- The Beat Goes On!
- This Is the Moment!
- Blue Spring
- It's All Right!
- The Time and the Place
- The Art Farmer Quintet Plays the Great Jazz Hits
- Homecoming
- Yesterday's Thoughts
- To Duke with Love
- The Summer Knows
- Art Farmer Quintet at Boomers
- Soul Trombone
- Smokin
- Take a Number from 1 to 10
- This Is for You, John
- Tangerine
- Generation
- Gotham City
- Bush Dance
- Love Is the Thing
- Roots
- Cool Sax from Hollywood to Broadway
- The In Sound
- Mean Greens
- The Tender Storm
- Excursions
- How Can You Live Like That?
- The Quota
- Triple Threat
- Mode for Joe
- Soweto
- The Soldier
- Once More
- Bridgework
- Billy Higgins Quintet
- Hub Cap
- Here to Stay
- The Body & the Soul
- Bolivia
- Highway One
- Farewell Keystone
- Milt Jackson at the Museum of Modern Art
- Born Free
- Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet
- Goodbye
- Olinga
- Milt Jackson at the Kosei Nenkin
- Bags' Bag
- It Don't Mean a Thing If You Can't Tap Your Foot to It
- Reverence and Compassion
- '
- Time After Time
- 12 Songs of Christmas
- Blue Gardenia
- Big City Sounds
- The Jazztet and John Lewis
- The Jazztet at Birdhouse
- Voices All
- Take One
- Really Livin
- Save Your Love for Me
- Advance!
- Drum Song
- Seven Minds
- Something in Common
- Spellbound
- Starting Time
- Bearcat
- '
- Glass Bead Games
- Half Note
- Night of the Mark VII
- On Stage Vol. 1
- On Stage Vol. 2
- On Stage Vol. 3
- Firm Roots
- The Highest Mountain
- Kimiko Is Here
- Kimiko Kasai
- First Class Kloss!
- Abbey Is Blue
- Strings!
- New York Time
- From This Moment On!
- Horizons
- The Cup Bearers
- Boss Horn
- Stratosonic Nuances
- Summer Soft
- Easy Living
- Lament
- Bebop Lives!
- Love, Lost & Found
- Caramba!
- The Sixth Sense
- Resurgence!
- Davey Blue
- Diamondhead
- Chocomotive
- Trust in Me
- Blue Odyssey
- Broken Windows, Empty Hallways
- The Big Horn
- Very PERSONal
- Naturally
- Pike's Groove
- The Mode
- Sonny Red
- Setting Standards
- For Losers
- Kwanza
- James Spaulding Plays the Legacy of Duke Ellington
- Now Is the Time
- Easy Does It
- Goodbye Yesterday
- Another Story
- More Than a Mood
- Up Front''