1996 · Album
Composer
Recorded 1996 · Astor Place · Produced by Not specified in available sources
Cedar Walton Writes His Own Standards
Scott Yanow of AllMusic praised Walton's new compositions as potential future standards waiting for improvisers to discover them.
Cedar Walton spent decades as a reliable pianist and sideman, working within the frameworks other composers created. By 1996, when he recorded Composer, he was ready to flip that around and show what happened when he took the helm as a writer. This album leans entirely on his original material — a straightforward statement of purpose that feels overdue.
Walton's pieces here are structured and melodic in ways that invite other musicians to land on them and explore. They're not dense or overly abstract. There's room to breathe, room to improvise, which is exactly what makes them compelling as vehicles for a jazz ensemble. The compositions avoid the common trap of either being too simple or too clever. They suggest a musician who understands what makes a tune work in the hands of other players, because he's spent his career in those hands.
AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow called out the misconception that Walton wasn't a significant composer, noting that several of these pieces "could possibly become standards in the future if jazz improvisers explore this disc." That's a fair read. This isn't a vanity project or a late-career tangent. It's a catalog of working material that sounds like it could sustain a lot of different readings. Whether other musicians have actually picked these up is another question, but on the recording itself, Walton demonstrates why they're worth exploring.
Who's playing
Christian McBridedouble bass
Cedar Waltonpiano
Vincent Herringalto saxophone
Ralph Mooresaxophone
Roy Hargrovetrumpet
Victor Lewisdrums
Where next?
More by Cedar Walton
All 42 albums →
The musicians on this record
Gettin' To It 1994
Christian McBride
plays double bass here
plays double bass here
Nothing Serious 1994
Roy Hargrove
plays trumpet here
plays trumpet here
