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How Ahmad Jamal Got His Groove Back
by Chuck Lenatti
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Though he was well-versed in the musical vernacular of blues, big bands, bebop and hard bop, piano trios and singers, as well as European classical music, pianist Ahmad Jamal seemed out of step as jazz fused with rock and R&B in the 1970s. Doubling on the Fender Rhodes and frequently backed by singers and strings, Jamal's covers of contemporary hits like Stevie Wonder's “Superstition," Marvin ...
Continue ReadingAhmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse, 1966-1968
by Stefano Merighi
Il terzo volume della serie “Emerald City Nights" del trio di Ahmad Jamal documenta alcune serate al Penthouse di Seattle nel triennio 1966-68. L'edizione è assai curata e firmata da Zev Feldman per il suo marchio Jazz Detective. Jamal, pianista stimatissimo da molti maestri del jazz fin dai suoi esordi, confermava in queste esibizioni di guardare obliquamente la storia del jazz moderno, dal bebop fino al modale, da una posizione del tutto originale, magari con un atteggiamento eclettico ...
Continue ReadingAhmad Jamal Plugs In: Funk, Fusion and the Fender Rhodes
by Chuck Lenatti
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 During the politically and culturally turbulent late 1960s and '70s, many jazz musicians attempted to appeal to a younger and more diverse audience that grew up listening to artists such as James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone rather than Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington or Charlie Parker. Miles Davis was the catalyst. Released in 1969, Miles Davis' seminal album Bitches Brew (Columbia GP ...
Continue ReadingAhmad Jamal: After Poinciana
by Chuck Lenatti
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 On Location and at the Penthouse In an apparent effort to capitalize on the new-found popularity from his 1958 record, At the Pershing, But Not for Me (Argo LP628), Ahmad Jamal released a flurry of albums between 1958 and 1970, many of them recorded on location. Musically, it was a very productive period for Jamal, and these 20-plus albums do nothing to tarnish Jamal and his ensembles' ...
Continue ReadingAhmad Jamal: An American Classic
by Chuck Lenatti
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 1930-1958: From Pittsburgh to The Pershing Frederick Russell Jones was born on July 2, 1930, to a working-class family in Pittsburgh. His friends called him Fritz. As a boy, he delivered newspapers to Billy Strayhorn's family. He converted to Islam around 1950 and took the name Ahmad Jamal. His family identified him as a child prodigy at the tender age of three after his uncle ...
Continue ReadingAhmad Jamal: Live in Paris (1971)
by Joshua Weiner
The pianist Ahmad Jamal, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 92, needs no introduction. Suffice it to say that this NEA Jazz Master and Lifetime Grammy Award recipient was one of the most popular pianists, small group leaders and hit recording artists of his time. One might be forgiven for thinking everything was known about Jamal, given his extensive discography. Happily, however, Transversales Disques continues its excellent series of “Lost ORTF Recordings" with this release, recorded live ...
Continue ReadingAhmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at The Penthouse, 1966-1968
by Mike Jurkovic
It was a time of warring nations, either within themselves or without. John Coltrane had fallen as Miles Davis was firing up the jazz/funk. It was a time of young men screaming, their bodies on fire. Black and white images of villages savaged and children starving. Into these unrivaled moments--they had just taken down a holy man in Memphis a month before--Ahmad Jamal, his uncluttered allegiance to cool, underscored syncopation, and profound ease and understanding of Erroll Garner's ...
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