Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from university. In the following dozen years or so Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy, among others. During Waldron's period as house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s, he appeared on dozens of albums and composed for many of them, including writing his most famous song, "Soul Eyes", for Coltrane. Waldron was often an accompanist for vocalists, and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959.
Mal's "Loser's Lament" is a part of soundtrack to an obscure movie from the late '60s"Sweet Love, Bitter (1967) (reviewed here). It's used in the films brilliant credit sequence and catches the bleak mood of the film perfectly. George Coleman on alto sax. Trumpeter Dave Burns, tenor saxophonist Charles Davis, bassists George Duvivier and Richard Davis, as well as drummer Alfred Dreares round out Waldron's tightly knit ensemble.
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