Mal Waldron was born August 16, 1925, in New York City. He became the house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s, a role that put him at the center of the label's hard bop output, and wrote "Soul Eyes," a composition later recorded by John Coltrane and many others. From April 1957 until her death in July 1959, Waldron served as Billie Holiday's regular accompanist, the role for which he remains best known, playing at her final recording sessions and performances.

He led sessions including The Quest (1961), featuring Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervin, and worked extensively as a sideman, including with Charles Mingus, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, as well as Jackie McLean. In 1963, Waldron suffered a drug-related breakdown that temporarily erased his ability to play and even remember music; he gradually relearned his own technique and vocabulary over the following years. In the mid-1960s he left the United States permanently, eventually settling in Brussels, Belgium, in the 1990s, and continued performing internationally, including extensive duo and ensemble work with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile.

Over a 50-year career, Waldron recorded more than 100 albums as a leader and 70 as a sideman. He died December 2, 2002, in Brussels, of cancer, at age 77.

Waldron's angular, repetitive, percussive piano style, sometimes described as hypnotic, developed a distinctive voice that bridged hard bop and the freer playing of his later European years, and his years accompanying Billie Holiday at the end of her life gave him a singular, direct link to one of jazz's most consequential vocalists.