Jazz breaking news: Cedar Walton 1934 – 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
The renowned American jazz pianist, composer and bandleader Cedar Walton died earlier today, aged 79 at his Brooklyn home, according to several reports.
Walton was active right up to this year, and played at Ronnie Scott’s in February where he was interviewed by Jazzwise for a feature in the April issue. He was also still recording last year, releasing Piero Odorci with the Cedar Walton Trio in 2012.
Walton had been a prolific recording and performing artist from the late-1950s, and as a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the early 1960s was responsible for helping shape the sound of hard-bop piano, as well as composing many pieces which are now seen as standards of jazz repertoire. Walton played alongside many of the greats of contemporary jazz, both as a sideman and bandleader, recording over 100 albums in a career spanning more than 60 years.
He started playing the piano in the 1930s, learning Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, as well as Art Tatum and Duke Ellington. He heard Charlie Parker on the radio and decided to move to New York in 1955 after graduating from the University of Denver. Sitting in with alto saxophonists Phil Woods and Lou Donaldson gave him his first gigs in New York City, from where he joined Art Blakey. He also played with a who’s who of big names, including John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt and Ornette Coleman before leading his own bands.
– Nick Webb