Pianist Mal Waldron recorded “The Quest” at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio on June 27, 1961. Waldron was the child of West Indian parents living in New York City and began piano lessons at 7. His parents discouraged his interest in jazz, but Mal listened to it on the radio and even played saxophone for a while. After a stint in the army, Mal earned a B.A. in Music from Queens College in New York all the time checking out the jazz being played on 52nd Street.

Mal Waldron worked with Ike Quebec, Lucky Thompson and Charles Mingus and became the house pianist at the Prestige Records studio in New Jersey. While working at Prestige, Waldron played on records by Phil Woods, John Coltrane and Gene Ammons while also accompanying vocalist Abbey Lincoln. He was one of the artists to contribute to Music Minus One, a series of some of the earliest play along records that were used as tools for learning jazz.

Waldron’s first album as a leader was released by Prestige in 1956. “The Quest” was his ninth such record and featured Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and clarinet, Booker Ervin playing the tenor saxophone, with Joe Benjamin on bass and Charlie Persip at the drums. Waldron played piano and a young Ron Carter was featured on cello. Critic Scott Yanow has written that the music on the record is complex and “falls somewhere between hard bop and the avant-garde.” The seven tracks are all Mal Waldron compositions.

Here is a link to a cut from "The Quest." Mal Waldron is the composer and plays piano here:

"THE QUEST"