Autograph of Mal Waldron

Certified Authentic autograph on record cover. Mel Waldron (1925-2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He began playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. Over the next ten years or so, Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane and Eric. Dolphy and others. During Waldron's period as house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s, he appeared on dozens of albums and composed for many of them, including writing his most famous song, "Soul Eyes", for Coltrane. Waldron often accompanied vocalists and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959.