Portions of the Free Lance back catalogue have been returning to print lately, one welcome reissue being Songs of Love and Regret, a duet encounter between pianist Mal Waldron and alto saxophonist Marion Brown originally released in 1985. It must be said that it's the kind of disc that requires a sympathetic ear: Brown's pitching is extraordinarily eccentric, the tempos are very slow indeed, and Waldron is minimalist even by his own standards. The best track - the one you should cue up first - was in fact omitted from the original LP; it's a sixteen-minute reading of "Blue Monk" works up a far greater head of steam than the originally released seven-minute version. Waldron takes both versions at a similar pace, stalking around like a cat on the prowl, but his work on the long version is more jagged and variable, with some marvellous jabbing crescendos pushing Brown to move further outside the changes. Each musician contributes a solo performance based on the blues - a Waldron original, "A Cause de Monk" (though halfway through it turns into something of a Bud Powell tribute), and Brown's reading of Clarence Williams'"Hurry Sundown", which has a gutsiness and directness that stands at some remove from his reticence on the rest of the album. The remainder of the set is devoted to fragile balladry: a Brown composition with the intriguing title "To the Lady in her Graham Cracker Window", Strayhorn's "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing", on which Brown sounds like a hesitant, out-of-tune Johnny Hodges, and McCoy Tyner's "Contemplation" (it's particularly interesting to see Tyner in the set list given Waldron's parallel development of a piano style grounded on the use of quartal chords). Some of this music is agonizingly slow-moving - it takes five and a half minutes on "Contemplation" before Waldron even strings together a few eighth-notes - but there's no denying its stubborn individuality. Not as satisfying a partnership as Waldron's decades-long collaboration with Steve Lacy, but well worth hearing, assuming you don't find Brown's tuning an insurmountable hurdle.
Tracks
01. Blue Monk (Thelonious Monk)
02. A Cause De Monk (Mal Waldron)
03. To The Golden Lady In Her Graham Cracked Window (Marion Brown)
04. Contemplation (McCoy Tyner)
05. Hurry Sundown (Clarence Williams)
06. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing (Billy Strayhorn)
07. Blue Monk/Take 2 (Thelonious Monk)
MARION BROWN alto saxophone
MAL WALDRON piano
Recorded November 9 & 10, 1985 at Gimmick Studio, Yerres, France
Free Lance - FRL-CD006