‘A lost 1975 session by the great pianist Mal Waldron, recorded in Paris with core members of the mighty Lafayette Afro Rock Band.
‘By 1975, Waldron was a decade into his self-imposed exile from the United States, having reassembled his sound after a devastating breakdown in the early ‘60s. His post-1969 output stripped jazz down to its core elements: modal intensity, locked grooves, and hypnotic repetition. Candy Girl doesn’t interrupt this trajectory—it extends it, wrapping Waldron’s minimalist mantras around the funked-up chassis of the Lafayette rhythm section.
‘Originally released in microscopic quantities on the Calumet label and long shrouded in obscurity, Candy Girl was recorded spontaneously in the studio of producer Pierre Jaubert, whose Paris HQ had become the workshop for both avant-garde jazz (Archie Shepp, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Lacy) and psychedelic funk (Lafayette Afro Rock Band AKA Ice). This session finds Waldron jamming freely with bassist Lafayette Hudson, drummer Donny Donable, and keyboardist Frank Abel on clavinet, Moog and more—laying down raw, unfiltered instrumental funk with an experimental edge.
‘Highlights include the low-slung vamp of Home Again, the crisp, break-laden groove of Red Match Box, and the mesmeric swirl of the title track Candy Girl — a minor-key electric piano waltz with hints of cosmic soul. The sombre yet meditative Dedication To Brahms deconstructs the composer’s third symphony into a sparse jazz reverie.’