Download Mala Full Bio

Vocalist, Pianist & Songwriter, Mala Waldron has been performing professionally from the age of 15, when she joined a
local R&B band. Within a year, the band was signed to RCA records and a single, Take a Little Love was released. She
went on to study jazz piano, voice & composition at SUNY College of Old Westbury with Makanda Ken McIntyre, graduating
with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Equally at home vocalizing as she is playing the piano and composing, Mala was honored to have been asked to create big
band arrangements of some of her tunes which she performed with bandleader, James "Jabbo" Ware and his Me, We & Them
orchestra. Mala's CDs as a featured artist include "He's My Father" a duo with her father, renown jazz pianist/composer,
Mal Waldron (Tokuma Communications/Japan), "Lullabye" her solo debut which was a tribute to her godmother, Billie Holiday
(Tokuma), and "Always There" (Soulful Sound Music) which was her first domestic release. Following impressive reviews in the U.S. and making JazzUSA's Top 20 Jazz CDs of 2006, "Always There" went on to receive quite
a favorable response in the UK as well, being voted the Soul Express "Album of the Month." The CD subsequently captured the
attention of executives at Columbia Music Entertainment, who re-released it in Japan under the same name.
Ms. Waldron has been invited to perform all over the world including such places as France, Belgium, Taiwan, China &
Malaysia (sponsored by HENNESSY-MOET), Italy (Catania Jazz Fest) and most recently, in Moscow, Russia. She has also
participated in numerous jazz festivals including the Annual Diet Coke Women in Jazz Festival (Jazz at Lincoln Center),
opening for Patrice Rushen. Mala is proud to have participated in the WBGO Kids Jazz Concert Series leading an all-female
ensemble at the Newark Museum. She has been featured in numerous trade journals, including Jazziz, Jazz Improv, Swing
Journal, Jazz Life, Hothouse Jazz and Ad Lib, as well as being a guest on WBGO, WBAI, WFDU and WKCR radio.