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Born in Dallas, Texas, on January 17 1934, Cedar Anthony Walton had his first piano lessons from his mother, herself a classically trained pianist. She also took him to local concerts by jazz pianists such as Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk, events which made a great impression upon him.
While studying composition and music education at the University of Denver, Walton formed a trio to play in local clubs. It was here that he had his first experience of accompanying soloists of the highest calibre, including Dizzy Gillespie and the young John Coltrane.
In 1955 he moved to New York, but had barely begun to find his way about before being called up for two years’ military service. A few days before his unit left for Germany, Duke Ellington’s orchestra came to play at their camp.
For a dare, Walton asked if he could sit in: “The last thing we expected him to say was 'yes’, but he did. He said 'Go easy on those keys, young man’.” At the end of the number Ellington smiled, saying: “I thought I told you to go easy!” This, Walton later realised, was a “very Ellingtonian” way of paying a compliment.
On his release from the Army, in 1958, Walton quickly established himself on the New York jazz scene. He made his recording debut that year, playing with the trumpeter Kenny Dorham on his album This Is The Moment. Shortly afterwards Walton narrowly missed appearing on one of the great classic albums, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. Coltrane decided to re-record several of the tracks, including the ones on which Walton had played, but Walton was away on tour. In subsequent years, every note and nuance of Giant Steps has been absorbed by generations of jazz lovers, but it is Tommy Flanagan’s piano, not Cedar Walton’s that they have been listening to. Walton took it with good grace, remarking that plenty of good work ended up on the cutting-room floor.
Following periods with JJ Johnson’s sextet and the Jazztet (co-led by Art Farmer and Benny Golson), Walton joined the Jazz Messengers in 1961. Although it existed for more than three decades, this band’s only permanent member was its drummer-leader, Art Blakey. The rest were usually highly talented young players on their way up. The team which Walton joined, also containing the saxophonist Wayne Shorter and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, is widely considered to be one of the finest of all.
It was there that Walton first made his mark as a jazz composer. He composed the title tracks for two of the band’s albums, Mozaic (1961) and Ugetsu (1963), and numerous pieces, including Bolivia, which remains something of a jazz standard to this day.
Leaving the Messengers in 1964, Walton found himself one of the busiest musicians in jazz. For a while he acted as house pianist for Prestige Records, but seems to have spent just as much time in the studios of Blue Note, Riverside and other leading labels of the 1960s and ’70s. A rough count of his output from those years amounts to around 60 albums, not counting 10 with the Messengers. In later years he recorded a further 40 albums under his own name, and several more with occasional bands such as Eastern Rebellion and Timeless All-Stars.
His jazz compositions have found their way into the repertoires of several contemporary bands.
Cedar Walton is survived by his wife, Martha.
Cedar Walton, born January 17 1934, died August 19 2013
