Free at Last (Mal Waldron album)

Free at Last
Studio album by the Mal Waldron Trio
Released	1970 (1970)
Recorded	November 24, 1969 (1969-11-24)
Studio	Studio Bauer Ludwigsburg, W. Germany
Genre	Jazz
Length	41:29
Label	ECM ECM 1001 ST
Producer	Manfred Scheffner
Mal Waldron chronology
Set Me Free (1969) Free at Last (1970) Tokyo Bound (1970)

Free at Last is an album by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron, recorded in 1969 and released on the ECM label. ^[1] The album was the first release on the influential European jazz label.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Tom Hull	B+ ( ) [3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[4]

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow states, "The music overall is not that memorable or unique but it does have its unpredictable moments and finds Waldron really stretching himself." ^[2]

JazzTimes , in a retrospective analysis of ECM's first 50 years, commented, "It's doubtful that anyone who heard Free at Last in its day took particular notice of its fledgling label, but an unheeded message is still a message: We're on a different wavelength." ^[5]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Mal Waldron except as indicated.

Side I

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Rat Now"	10:18
2.	"Balladina"	5:05
3.	"1-3-234"	4:05

Side II

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Rock My Soul"		11:23
2.	"Willow Weep for Me"	Ann Ronell	7:34
3.	"Boo"		3:24

Personnel

Mal Waldron Trio

• Mal Waldron – piano
• Isla Eckinger – bass
• Clarence Becton – drums

Technical personnel

• Manfred Scheffner – producer
• Kurt Rapp – engineer
• Manfred Eicher – supervision
• Rufus Vedder – cover design
• Mal Waldron – liner notes

References

1. Mal Waldron discography accessed February 22, 2011
2. Yanow, S. Allmusic Review accessed February 22, 2011
3. Hull, Tom (February 28, 2018). "Streamnotes". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1454. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
5. West, Michael J. (May 14, 2019). "JazzTimes 10: Landmark ECM Albums". JazzTimes . Retrieved May 27, 2019.