High Note Records
2008
Seasoned Wood
About This Album
Well known for his work as the pianist in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and his seminal labors as pianist for Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, and Sonny Criss in the 1960s, and with Clifford Jordan on his seminal Glass Bead Games and Night of the Mark VII sessions in the 1970s, Cedar Walton is nonetheless often overlooked as a bandleader. As evidenced by 2008's Seasoned Wood, this should not be the case. At 74, Walton is as promising and as dizzying a bandleader as ever. His command of the hard bop and post-bop languages and his abilities to reinterpret well-known standards authoritatively are all remarkable. Here he is accompanied by longtime drummer Al Foster, saxophonist Vincent Herring, young trumpeter/flügelhorn upstart Jeremy Pelt, and bassist Peter Washington. Herring has been part of Walton's band for over 15 years; the pianist and Foster have played together literally dozens of times since the 1960s. The program consists of five originals, the Gershwin standard "The Man I Love," Jimmy Heath's "Longravity," and the standard "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square." The main element here is a deep-rooted swing no matter the tune. From the first notes of the Gershwin number, opened by Walton's comping over the two-horn front line, it's everywhere.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,5 and 7)

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