Cedar Walton

Cedar Anthony Walton, Junior ( born January 17, 1934 in Dallas, Texas; † August 19, 2013 in New York City ) was an American jazz pianist.

Life

Walton grew up in Dallas, Texas. After attending the University of Denver, he went in 1955 to New York. After completing his military service in Germany, where he played with Leo Wright, Don Ellis and Eddie Harris, he became a member of the band by Kenny Dorham. In the late fifties he played with JJ Johnson, Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet, and Gigi Gryce. In 1959 he was involved in the recording of John Coltrane album Giant Steps.

In the early sixties he came for three years to Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers as a pianist and arranger, where he played with Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard, as on the album Mosaic 1961. He left the " Messengers " in 1964 after the album Free for All to work at Abbey Lincoln and Lee Morgan. In the late sixties he played in the house rhythm section of Prestige Records, where he worked not only in publications by Sonny Criss, Pat Martino, Eric Kloss, and Charles McPherson, but also their own recordings presented.

The mid-seventies he directed not only the radio group Mobius, but also his band "Eastern Rebellion " in which appeared, among others, Clifford Jordan, George Coleman and Bob Berg, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins.

His most famous piece is Bolivia, while his oldest fantasy composition was recorded in D under the title " Ugetsu " by Art Blakey in 1963.

In 2010 he received a NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. His album The Bouncer, released in England on 19 July 2011, recorded in Rudy Van Gelder's renowned recording studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The last piece of it he named Martha's Prize, Martha is his wife's name. It shows his sense of humor. Six of the eight compositions on the album are from Walton himself, the musician was married and lived in New York City for decades. Walton died in August 2013 at his home in Brooklyn.

Disco Graphical Notes

Credentials

  • Phil Bailey ( 1985): Volume 35 - Cedar Walton, Jamey Aebersold, 1985.
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