Music Monday: Cedar Walton

I love intense, provocative, and challenging music, but I also really like hard bop, and its descendants soul jazz, modal jazz, post-bop, and fusion. So sometimes, especially when I’m feeling stressed out, I want to hear good music, well played, and not to have to worry about it provoking a spiritual awakening or calling into the question the nature of my soul. This is when I turn to guys like Cedar Walton. Readers of this blog know that I like Cedar Walton. His 1975 albums Mobius and Eastern Rebellion (1975) are in heavy rotation in my house. This past week, I’ve dug a bit deeper in Walton’s impressive catalogue and enjoyed his 1969, soul jazz adjacent album Soul Cycle (well, especially the opening track “Sundown Express”). People have criticized it for being “too commercial,” but that doesn’t take anything away from the quality of the music. Walton is the star of the show, but James Moody offers some solid moments on woodwinds and Rudy Stevenson’s guitar is pretty fun. Tootie Heath…