Mal Waldron could say more with a single note than most jazz pianists could manage with a million. His moody, minimalist style was already fully formed on '50s tracks like "I'm Left Alone," with Waldron painting stark, stirring lines against Jackie McLean's keening saxophone. By the '60s, his vision evolved into something beyond even post-bop conventions, as evidenced by the slightly Eastern lilt of "Quiet Temple,” while '70s tunes like the solo-piano meditation "For Eric Satie" found him channeling the avant-garde French composer himself, following his own muse to even more experimental, dreamy heights.