Mal Waldron Quintet - "The Seagulls of Kristiansund"

I played this for myself for the first time 2-3 months ago, and I can't stop returning to it for its misty and melancholic beauty. Calming yet pensive, "The Seagulls of Kristiansund" first appeared on Mal Waldron's album One-Upmanship (1977); this performance, recorded at Greenwich Village's famous Village Vanguard in 1986, is a 26-minute impressionistic improvisation that places you within the titular Norwegian municipality as you listen to the musicians take their time and their turns in describing the fjords and fauna and overcast weather to you via their instruments. In a word, chilling. And, yes, you'll believe you're hearing the seagulls that this song is dedicated to right there inside the New York club. One listen through this recording can easily turn into two or four.

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