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theloniousbach · 5 years ago

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A Listener’s Journal, #22: The Piano Trio in the 1950s

As I reminisce about my 50 years of hearing music, I go back even further, another five years or so, to a huge one. The Oscar Peterson Trio (with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen) opened (?!?!) for the New Christy Minstrels (@#$%*@) at UMKC where my Dad taught. I was drawn to the music and ended up sitting behind the PA column onstage (I felt at home and I was a cute enough kid). It was magic. The Canadiana Suite was an early album and Ed Thigpen gave me some drumsticks I have to this day. And, piano-bass-drums is my basic unit, my entry point. Miles is a formative hero, but perhaps because of that, I've been slow to get to know other trumpeters. Tenor is the horn I know best but it's not necessary. Piano-bass-drums is enough, thank you very much.

Bill Evans with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian is a pinnacle, sure. I also gravitated to Peterson, but he was already Oscar Peterson with album after album of great playing when I started buying him. Until this exercise, I never heard him (or Ahmad Jamal or Errol Garner) do the things that commanded that level of attention.

So I started with the three "Amazing" Bud Powell albums, then went to the Jamal at the Pershing album, then Garner By the Sea, and, a great new fine, a collection of Oscar Peterson recordings from 1949-1951 with Ray Brown or Major Helley. Garner was, I arrogantly thought, flashy and commercial, though the complete By the Sea release and another archival concert plus Christian Sands revival efforts prepared me for this exercise. Jamal's influence on Miles won major points, but I didn't explore much beyond a Greatest Hits (on Impulse) album--but he seemed slighter some how even if what I was supposed to listen for was precisely the spaces. The Bud Powell I had was at the Massey Hall Concert (okay, he's the pianist you call for such a gig) and with Mingus at Antibes when that band intriguingly didn't have a pianist unless it was Charles himself.

All this to say, they were revered names but I didn't (and still don't) know them in all the subtleties I know Evans. Or Monk. He is in a category all his own, except I should do a different but similar exercise with Monk, Elmo Hope, Herbie Nichols, and possibly Sonny Clark. And I'm not going to get to Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, and Cedar Walton. I've got a fair sense of the trio work of Miles' pianists Red Garland and Wynton Kelly. So this project can happily metastasize.

For now, pianists known more, if not exclusively, for trio work than accompaniment and therefore for burning the format on our/my ears. One last digression though is about Art Tatum who is a huge influence on these men. My folks had a two record set of him playing solo versions of gems from the Songbook. They were overwhelming Chopinesque ornamentations and all of them have those chops and deploy them in lieu of the horns. But Tatum tires me out.

Powell, particularly on the relatively early Amazing albums, ain't shy about calling attention all he can do, but if he's the bebop pianist, the one who could play on Parker at that level, I hear that level of melodic invention. And melody is what I'm gravitating to in Parker's playing and bebop chords are means to that end and not ends in themselves. These are shortish pieces given recording conventions of the time, so there is a concision that polishes it all too. Powell has more than enough power and speed, but I'm struck how it simply adds to the heft of playing. Part of that heft is the bebopper's, certainly Parker's, grounding in the blues. As with all these players, the Great American Songbook is another key jumping off place, a rich lode to explore. Powell, particularly here when there's promise not its tragic loss, is so inventive, so compelling. He certainly played in larger ensembles, so he stands slightly apart from these others. But I think that's true of his piano work too and his influence is broader than the piano-bass-drums ensemble.

Garner, on the other hand, is almost the quintessential piano trio leader. He has chops and ideas to carry a band. There's lots to listen to and I do disavow the flashy/commercial snap judgment, but I do think his impact is on pianists than the music as a whole. He is flashy and winning. The detail to explain away is "Misty" which is one of the most compelling and oft recorded standards. With this exception and Jamal's "Poinciana," these men are not known as composers. But, if we just immediately elevate "Misty" to the Great American Songbook then he--and one strong thread of the genre, think Bill Charlap--is a stylist and champion of these tunes. Together, they contribute to a popularity that is too easy to dismiss. I have though dismissed him and so welcome this exercise that will put him in play when I want to get back to some basics.

I expected to hear lots of overlap of tunes with Jamal, but they just make different choices from the standard repertoire. I don't read too much in which Gershwin or Porter each chooses--and it's not that I prefer Jamal's choices. But, I simply prefer Jamal's approach and see a wider influence than Garner has. It's not just Miles, but that space just opens up possibilities. With the band, Israel Crosby and Vernell Fourier have room that Garner doesn't allow Eddie Calhoun and Denzil Best (interesting that all of them, except Best, are better known for their work in these bands than elsewhere). There's a "Cherokee" where all three lead an uptempo verse, but each chorus slows into lush ensemble playing. Throughout there are gorgeous chords and fluid lines that build often slowly. He/they show us nifty facets of these treasured tunes. If "Misty" confounds my notion of Garner as an interpreter, not a composer, then "Ahmad's Blues" makes the assertion that Jamal (and Garner too) are not as bluesy as Powell or certainly Peterson. But I think that's mostly true--and I like how Jamal lets tunes unfold without the drive of a blues shuffle.

As I've said, Oscar Peterson had a wonderful impact on my very young ears His trio had a huge sound and an insistent often bluesy pulse. He could hit big chords, block or trilled arpeggios, to culminate a solo or part thereof, that knocked you back. Yes, there was Tatumesque flash but that drive was always present and kept things going and focused. What makes the "Debut: Clef/Mercury Duo Recordings 1949-1951" set such a treasure is that it was all there at the beginning, including when Norman Granz just happens (yeah right) notice that he's in the audience at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert and asks him to play, thus getting around work permits (Peterson was from Toronto). The chords, the fluid ideas, the taste (he too is all over the Great American Song Book--and had I not found these recordings I might well have written about late 1950s collections of "Oscar Peterson Plays the Songs of [Tin Pan Alley Composer]." I will still happily explore them too, but this will be my go to Peterson for a long time.). It's the proper mix of flash and taste.

Much as I appreciate Powell's edge, Oscar pulls that back a notch but just brings more ideas to the table than Garner. Jamal is for a different mood, but it's a mood to indulge.

I want to relook at Parker in terms of melodic invention and Powell will be part of that deepening of what I can absorb from bebop. I can see other explorations of the piano-bass-drums ensemble in formation (Nichols/Hope/Clark or Garland/Kelly or Tommy Flanagan, maybe Horace Silver (I don't even know if there are trio albums),

But I'll be spending much more time with Peterson's duo and Songbook albums and Ahmad Jamal across the decades.(he has a wonderful very recent solo album "Ballades" that was an impetus for this little exercise).

#jazz #2019 #listener's journal #bud powell #oscar peterson #ahmad jamal #erroll garner

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blackkudos · 6 years ago

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Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones, July 2, 1930) is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator. For five decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz.

Biography

Early life

Jamal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began playing piano at the age of three, when his uncle Lawrence challenged him to duplicate what he was doing on the piano. Jamal began formal piano training at the age of seven with Mary Cardwell Dawson, whom he describes as greatly influencing him. His Pittsburgh roots have remained an important part of his identity ("Pittsburgh meant everything to me and it still does," he said in 2001) and it was there that he was immersed in the influence of jazz artists such as Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner. Jamal also studied with pianist James Miller and began playing piano professionally at the age of fourteen, at which point he was recognized as a "coming great" by the pianist Art Tatum. When asked about his practice habits by a New York Times critic, Jamal commented that, "I used to practice and practice with the door open, hoping someone would come by and discover me. I was never the practitioner in the sense of twelve hours a day, but I always thought about music. I think about music all the time."

Beginnings and conversion to Islam

Jamal began touring with George Hudson's Orchestra after graduating from George Westinghouse High School in 1948. He joined another touring group known as The Four Strings, which soon disbanded when the violinist, Joe Kennedy. Jr., left. He moved to Chicago in 1950 (where he legally changed his name to Ahmad Jamal), and played on and off with local musicians such as saxophonists Von Freeman and Claude McLin, as well as performing solo at the Palm Tavern, occasionally joined by drummer Ike Day.

Born to Baptist parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jamal did not discover Islam until his early 20s. While touring in Detroit (where there was a sizable Muslim community in the 1940s and 1950s), Jamal became interested in Islam and Islamic culture. He converted to Islam and changed his name to Ahmad Jamal in 1950. In an interview with The New York Times a few years later, Jamal said his decision to change his name stemmed from a desire to "re-establish my original name." Shortly after his conversion to Islam, Jamal explained to The New York Times that he "says Muslim prayers five times a day and arises in time to say his first prayers at 5 am. He says them in Arabic in keeping with the Muslim tradition."

He made his first sides in 1951 for the Okeh label with The Three Strings (which would later also be called the Ahmad Jamal Trio, although Jamal himself prefers not to use the term "trio"): the other members were guitarist Ray Crawford and a bassist, at different times Eddie Calhoun (1950–52), Richard Davis (1953–54), and Israel Crosby (from 1954). The Three Strings arranged an extended engagement at Chicago's Blue Note, but leapt to fame after performing at the Embers in New York City where John Hammond saw the band play and signed them to Okeh Records. Hammond, a record producer who discovered the talents and enhanced the fame of musicians like Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Count Basie, also helped Jamal's trio attract critical acclaim. Jamal subsequently recorded for Parrot (1953–55) and Epic (1955) using the piano-guitar-bass lineup.

At the Pershing: But Not For Me

The trio's sound changed significantly when Crawford was replaced with drummer Vernel Fournier in 1957, and the group worked as the "House Trio" at Chicago's Pershing Hotel. The trio released the live album, Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me, which stayed on the Ten Best-selling charts for 108 weeks. Jamal's well known song "Poinciana" was first released on this album.

Perhaps Jamal's most famous recording and undoubtedly the one that brought him vast popularity in the late 1950s and into the 1960s jazz age, At the Pershing was recorded at the Pershing Hotel in Chicago in 1958. Jamal played the set with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernel Fournier. The set list expressed a diverse collection of tunes, including "The Surrey with the Fringe On Top" from the musical Oklahoma! and Jamal's arrangement of the jazz standard "Poinciana". Jazz musicians and listeners alike found inspiration in the At the Pershing recording, and Jamal's trio was recognized as an integral new building block in the history of jazz. Evident were his unusually minimalist style and his extended vamps, according to reviewer John Morthland. "If you're looking for an argument that pleasurable mainstream art can assume radical status at the same time, Jamal is your guide," said The New York Times contributor Ben Ratliff in a review of the album.

After the recording of the best-selling album But Not For Me, Jamal's music grew in popularity throughout the 1950s, and he attracted media coverage for his investment decisions pertaining to his "rising fortune". In 1959, he took a tour of North Africa to explore investment options in Africa. Jamal, who was twenty-nine at the time, said he had a curiosity about the homeland of his ancestors, highly influenced by his conversion to the Muslim faith. He also said his religion had brought him peace of mind about his race, which accounted for his "growth in the field of music that has proved very lucrative for me." Upon his return to the U.S. after a tour of North Africa, the financial success of Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me allowed Jamal to open a restaurant and club called The Alhambra in Chicago. In 1962, The Three Strings disbanded and Jamal moved to New York City, where, at the age of 32, he took a three-year hiatus from his musical career.

Return to music and The Awakening

In 1964, Jamal resumed touring and recording, this time with the bassist Jamil Nasser and recorded a new album, Extensions, in 1965. Jamal and Nasser continued to play and record together from 1964 to 1972. He also joined forces with Fournier (again, but only for about a year) and drummer Frank Gant (1966–76), among others. Until 1970, he played acoustic piano exclusively. The final album on which he played acoustic piano in the regular sequence was The Awakening. In the 1970s, he played electric piano as well. It was rumored that the Rhodes piano was a gift from someone in Switzerland. He continued to play throughout the 1970s and 1980s, mostly in trios with piano, bass and drums, but he occasionally expanded the group to include guitar. One of his most long-standing gigs was as the band for the New Year's Eve celebrations at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., from 1979 through the 1990s.

Later career

In 1986, Jamal sued critic Leonard Feather for using his former name in a publication.

Clint Eastwood featured two recordings from Jamal's But Not For Me album — "Music, Music, Music" and "Poinciana" — in the 1995 movie The Bridges of Madison County.

Now in his eighties, Ahmad Jamal has continued to make numerous tours and recordings. His most recently released albums are Saturday Morning (2013), and the CD/DVD release Ahmad Jamal Featuring Yusef Lateef Live at L'Olympia (2014).

Jamal is the main mentor of jazz piano virtuosa Hiromi Uehara, known as Hiromi.

Style and influence

Trained in both traditional jazz ("American classical music", as he prefers to call it) and European classical style, Ahmad Jamal has been praised as one of the greatest jazz innovators over his exceptionally long career. Following bebop greats like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Jamal entered the world of jazz at a time when speed and virtuosic improvisation were central to the success of jazz musicians as artists. Jamal, however, took steps in the direction of a new movement, later coined "cool jazz" – an effort to move jazz in the direction of popular music. He emphasized space and time in his musical compositions and interpretations instead of focusing on the blinding speed of bebop.

Because of this style, Jamal was "often dismissed by jazz writers as no more than a cocktail pianist, a player so given to fluff that his work shouldn't be considered seriously in any artistic sense". Stanley Crouch, author of Considering Genius, offers a very different reaction to Jamal's music, claiming that, like the highly influential Thelonious Monk, Jamal was a true innovator of the jazz tradition and is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Parker. His unique musical style stemmed from many individual characteristics, including his use of orchestral effects and his ability to control the beat of songs. These stylistic choices resulted in a unique and new sound for the piano trio: "Through the use of space and changes of rhythm and tempo", writes Crouch, "Jamal invented a group sound that had all the surprise and dynamic variation of an imaginatively ordered big band." Jamal explored the texture of riffs, timbres, and phrases rather than the quantity or speed of notes in any given improvisation. Speaking about Jamal, A. B. Spellman of the National Endowment of the Arts said: "Nobody except Thelonious Monk used space better, and nobody ever applied the artistic device of tension and release better." These (at the time) unconventional techniques that Jamal gleaned from both traditional classical and contemporary jazz musicians helped pave the way for later jazz greats like Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner.

Though Jamal is often overlooked by jazz critics and historians, he is frequently credited with having a great influence on Miles Davis. Davis is quoted as saying that he was impressed by Jamal's rhythmic sense and his "concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement". Jamal characterizes what he thought Davis admired about his music as: "my discipline as opposed to my space." Jamal and Davis became friends in the 1950s, and Davis continued to support Jamal as a fellow musician, often playing versions of Jamal's own songs ("Ahmad's Blues", "New Rhumba") until he died in 1991.

Jamal, speaking about his own work says, "I like doing ballads. They're hard to play. It takes years of living, really, to read them properly." From an early age, Jamal developed an appreciation for the lyrics of the songs he learned: "I once heard Ben Webster playing his heart out on a ballad. All of a sudden he stopped. I asked him, 'Why did you stop, Ben?' He said, 'I forgot the lyrics.'" Jamal attributes the variety in his musical taste to the fact that he grew up in several eras: the big band era, the bebop years, and the electronic age. He says his style evolved from drawing on the techniques and music produced in these three eras. In 1985, Jamal agreed to do an interview and recording session with his fellow jazz pianist, Marian McPartland on her NPR show Piano Jazz. Jamal, who said he rarely plays "But Not For Me" due to its popularity since his 1958 recording, played an improvised version of the tune – though only after noting that he has moved on to making ninety percent of his repertoire his own compositions. He said that when he grew in popularity from the Live at the Pershing album, he was severely criticized afterwards for not playing any of his own compositions.

In more recent years, Jamal has embraced the electronic influences affecting the genre of jazz. He has also occasionally expanded his usual small ensemble of three to include a tenor saxophone (George Coleman) and a violin. A jazz fan interviewed by Down Beat magazine about Jamal in 2010 described his development as "more aggressive and improvisational these days. The word I used to use is avant garde; that might not be right. Whatever you call it, the way he plays is the essence of what jazz is."

Saxophonist Ted Nash, a longtime member of the Lincoln Center Orchestra, had the opportunity to play with Jamal in 2008 for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Nash described his experience with Jamal's style in an interview with Down Beat magazine: "The way he comped wasn't the generic way that lots of pianists play with chords in the middle of the keyboard, just filling things up. He gave lots of single line responses. He'd come back and throw things out at you, directly from what you played. It was really interesting because it made you stop, and allowed him to respond, and then you felt like playing something else – that's something I don't feel with a lot of piano players. It's really quite engaging. I guess that's another reason people focus in on him. He makes them hone in [sic]."

Bands and personnel

Jamal typically plays with a bassist and drummer: his current trio is with bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Herlin Riley. He has also performed with percussionist Manolo Badrena. Jamal has recorded with the voices of the Howard A. Roberts Chorale on The Bright, the Blue and the Beautiful and Cry Young; with vibraphonist Gary Burton on In Concert; with brass, reeds, and strings celebrating his hometown of Pittsburgh; with The Assai Quartet; and with saxophonist George Coleman on the album The Essence.

Awards and honors

1959: Entertainment Award, Pittsburgh Junior Chamber of Commerce

1980: Distinguished Service Award, City of Washington D.C., Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Smithsonian Institution

1981: Nomination, Best R&B Instrumental Performance ("You're Welcome", "Stop on By"), NARAS

1986: Mellon Jazz Festival Salutes Ahmad Jamal, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1987: Honorary Membership, Philippines Jazz Foundation

1994: American Jazz Masters award, National Endowment for the Arts

2001: Arts & Culture Recognition Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women

2001: Kelly-Strayhorn Gallery of Stars, for Achievements as Pianist and Composer, East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce

2003: American Jazz Hall of Fame, New Jersey Jazz Society

2003: Gold Medallion, Steinway & Sons 150 Years Celebration (1853–2003)

2007: Living Jazz Legend, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

2007: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French government

2011: Down Beat Hall of Fame, 76th Readers Poll

2015: Honorary Doctorate of Music, The New England Conservatory

Discography

As leader

1951: Ahmad's Blues (Okeh)

1955: Ahmad Jamal Plays (Parrot) – also released as Chamber Music of the New Jazz (Argo)

1955: The Ahmad Jamal Trio (Epic)

1956: Count 'Em 88 (Argo)

1958: At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Argo)

1958: At the Pershing, Vol. 2 (Argo)

1958: Ahmad Jamal Trio Volume IV (Argo)

1958: Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal (Argo)

1959: The Piano Scene of Ahmad Jamal (Epic)

1959: Jamal at the Penthouse (Argo)

1960: Happy Moods (Argo)

1960: Listen to the Ahmad Jamal Quintet (Argo)

1961: All of You (Argo)

1961: Ahmad Jamal's Alhambra (Argo)

1962: Ahmad Jamal at the Blackhawk (Argo)

1962: Macanudo (Argo)

1963: Poinciana (Argo)

1964: Naked City Theme (Argo)

1965: The Roar of the Greasepaint (Argo)

1965: Extensions (Argo)

1966: Rhapsody (Cadet)

1966: Heat Wave (Cadet)

1967: Cry Young (Cadet)

1968: The Bright, the Blue and the Beautiful (Cadet)

1968: Tranquility (ABC)

1968: Ahmad Jamal at the Top: Poinciana Revisited (Impulse!)

1970: The Awakening (Impulse!)

1971: Freeflight (Impulse!)

1972: Outertimeinnerspace (Impulse!)

1973: Ahmad Jamal '73 (20th Century)

1974: Jamalca (20th Century)

1974: Jamal Plays Jamal (20th Century)

1975: Genetic Walk (20th Century)

1976: Steppin' Out with a Dream (20th Century)

1976: Recorded Live at Oil Can Harry's (Catalyst)

1978: One (20th Century)

1980: Intervals (20th Century)

1980: Live at Bubba's (Who's Who in Jazz)

1980: Night Song (Motown)

1981: In Concert (Personal Choice Records)

1982: American Classical Music (Shubra)

1985: Digital Works (Atlantic)

1985: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival 1985 (Atlantic)

1986: Rossiter Road (Atlantic)

1987: Crystal (Atlantic)

1989: Pittsburgh (Atlantic)

1992: Live in Paris 1992 (Birdology)

1992: Chicago Revisited (Telarc)

1994: I Remember Duke, Hoagy & Strayhorn (Telarc)

1994: Ahmad Jamal with The Assai Quartet (Roesch)

1994: Ahmad Jamal at Home (Roesch)

1995: The Essence Part One (Birdology)

1995: Big Byrd: The Essence Part 2 (Birdology)

1996: Live in Paris 1996 (Birdology)

1997: Nature: The Essence Part Three (Birdology)

2000: Picture Perfect

2001: Ahmad Jamal à l'Olympia

2003: In Search of Momentum

2005: After Fajr

2008: It's Magic

2008: Poinciana – One Night Only

2009: A Quiet Time

2012: Blue Moon (Jazzbook)

2013: Saturday Morning (Jazzbook)

2014: Ahmad Jamal featuring Yusef Lateef, Live at L'Olympia. 2012 — 2 CDs/1 DVD (Jazzbook/Bose/Jazz Village)

2017: Marseille (Jazz Village)

Compilations

1967: Standard Eyes (Cadet)

1972: Inspiration (Cadet)

1974: Re-evaluations: The Impulse! Years (Impulse!)

1980: The Best of Ahmad Jamal (20th Century)

1998: Ahmad Jamal 1956–66 Recordings

1998: Cross Country Tour 1958–1961 (GRP/Chess)

2005: The Legendary Okeh & Epic Recordings (1951–1955) (Columbia Legacy)

2007: Complete Live at the Pershing Lounge 1958 (Gambit)

2007: Complete Live at the Spotlite Club 1958 (Gambit)

As sideman

With Ray Brown

Some of My Best Friends Are...The Piano Players (Telarc, 1994)

With Shirley Horn

May the Music Never End (Verve, 2003)

Wikipedia

#Ahmad Jamal #07-02

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thiqgruvz · 4 years ago

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Profile of Ahmad

Ahmad Jamal, whose birth name was actually Fredrick Russell Jones, is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He was born on July 2, 1930 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Jamal began playing the piano at age three but didn’t receive formal training until the age of seven. It also happens that at this time he was working as a paperboy, and had begun delivering newspapers to the family home of Billy Strayhorn, esteemed composer and famous collaborator on a number of Duke Ellington’s works. During his high school years, he began receiving lessons from opera singer and founder of the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC), Mary Cardwell Dawson and jazz pianist James Edward “Sing” Miller. At 14 he joined the musician’s union and immediately after his graduation from Westinghouse High School (the same school as his idol, Eroll Garner), he began touring with George Hudson’s Orchestra in 1949, at 17.

It didn’t take long before he was widely adored for his unique improvisational style with shades reminiscent of Garner’s casual lilt and aspects from the playing of his other heroes, Nat “King” Cole and Art Tatum. In his playing you can hear Cole’s open and bright, almost playful sound and Tatum’s harmonic density and ornamental flourishes. After leaving Hudson’s group, he briefly joined swing violinist Joe Kennedy’s band, The Four Strings, and toured with them until Kennedy’s departure in 1950.

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In 1951, Jamal moved to Chicago and formed his first trio by the name of The Three Strings because… well, why not? lol The trio consisted of bassist Israel Crosby, and guitarist Ray Crawford, who in 1956 was replaced by drummer Vernell Fournier, and of course Jamal himself. They eventually began playing, with the second lineup, at the Pershing Hotel as the house trio. It was around this time, and with the sound of the trio changing drastically with the inclusion of Fournier’s sound, that other cats like bandleader Ramsey Lewis started to really pay attention to Ahmad Jamal’s music. “Many times we would hightail it out to the South Side [after a gig] to see Ahmad Jamal, Israel Crosby and Vernell Fournier, because the trio was really playing great music as a very cohesive unit,” he says, “Having the occasion to go and hear him was simply a delight, because he had the room rocking. It was always packed, and it was always a happy feeling at the Pershing when Ahmad was playing there.”

In 1958, the trio recorded their first tune, But Not For Me, at the Pershing for Argo Records, which is a division of Chess Records. This tune became a hit single and also the centerpiece of an album, which also features hit, Poinciana and stayed on the Top 10 list for a little over two years!

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In addition to pioneering a unique and creative voice in his improvisation, Ahmad Jamal fully embraced a variety of block chord shapes in the 50s that were much more dense and colorful as compared to earlier jazz pianists such as Bud Powell, who often employed lower, more open and rhythmic left-hand voicings which gave him more freedom in the right hand. Many people were taken aback by the richness and uniqueness of Jamal’s playing. One such individual was the great trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis admired Jamal’s use of space and impeccable technique and developed much of his style in the footsteps of Jamal’s. In fact, Miles Davis’s famous tune So What, the first track on the Kind of Blue album which peaked at #3 on the charts and stayed in there for the better part of a year, was HEAVILY inspired by Ahmad Jamal’s New Rhumba and I do mean heavily.

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The call and response format and the orchestration and the shape of the tune including the melody in the bass make the sound fairly distinctive. Miles’ sizzling intense but calm trumpet sound however gives his version a little extra of that cool jazz lean though. Nevertheless, Ahmad’s capacity for delicate and highly color-based touch on the piano as well as his influence on Miles both contribute to his legacy in shaping the Cool Jazz subgenre sound.

In 1970, Ahmad Jamal recorded the theme song for the series MASH! which was composed by Johnny Mandel. Later, in 1995, two tracks from his albums But Not For Me: “Music, Music, Music”, and Poinciana, were featured in the Clint Eastwood movie The Bridges of Madison County. Not to mention the many covers and samples musicians have done of his songs of this earlier era throughout the years. The song “I Love Music” alone, which briefly appeared on last week’s post, was sampled on Nas’ “The World is Yours” on the illmatic album, and then resampled with the backup vocals from that track on Busta Rhymes’ Extinction Level Event II that just dropped a couple weeks ago. Current pianist of The Jazz Standard’s own Mingus Big Band, Theo Hill also has a straight up cover track and a few live recordings of the tune, painting it in different styles and with different instrumentations each time.

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Needless to say, Jamal has been a pivotal figure in inspiring and shaping the sounds of jazz and hip hop for decades starting from a very early age. He’s still a serious force to be reckoned with since he has his technical ability and ergonomic suave intact despite performing at age 90, but in addition to retaining the agility of his youth, he’s gained all the wisdom and musicality of his years and experience.

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#ahmad jamal #jazz

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de-salva · 8 years ago

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Alb. “The Beginning Of A New Birth & As Time Flows On�� (1975)

The musicians are John Jamyll Jones (composer, arranger, director), Earl Grant-Lawrence (flute), Khalid Farug (alto flute), Michael Cosmic (alto sax), Donald Hasaan (alto clarinet), Haquib Ishma'il Hasaan (tenor sax), Phillip Musra (soprano sax), Shaddu Jones (piano), Robert Ruff (bass), Tony Cerra, Chauncy Hutcherson (drums), Larry Roland (congas), Martin Yaseen, Lee Andrew Davison, Sis. Vernell Jordan, Lola Roland, Imani Grant-Lawrence, Gloria Hutcherson, Doug Morgan (vocals)

* This album finds its origins in the jazz music scene of Boston / Massachusetts, USA.

** For Mariah >>> alongtimealone

#World`s Experience Orchestra

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highladyelf · 2 years ago

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#vernell bass #dahmer case #jeffrey dahmer #saved #Youtube

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jazztidbits · 3 years ago

Video

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It's A Wonderful World

Piano: Ahmad Jamal Double Bass: Israel Crosby Drums: Vernel Fournier Guitar: Ray Crawford

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onejazztrackaday · 4 years ago

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Poinciana – Ahmad Jamal

American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal was born Frederick Jones in July 1930, (the same year as Sean Connery), and has been playing, composing, leading and teaching jazz for over five decades. Jamal’s first album The Piano Scene of Ahmad Jamal was released in 1955 with recordings from as early as ‘51, and his most recent album Ballades was released just last year in 2019.

Rather than chase the virtuosic speed and dexterity of bebop, Jamal emphasised space and time in his music, pursuing what would later become known as cool jazz.

Jamal is credited with having a great influence on Miles Davis, who has stated that he was impressed by Jamal's rhythmic sense and his "concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement".

Today’s track Poinciana was written by Nat Simon in 1936. It’s the title track of an Ahmad Jamal album by the same name, released in 1963, featuring Ahmad Jamal on piano, Ray Crawford on guitar, Israel Crosby on bass, and Vernel Fournier on drums.

Poinciana became somewhat of a theme song of Ahmad Jamal. Tucked into the middle of his latest album Ballades is a solo rendition of it which is described by Downbeat Magazine’s reviewer Gary Fukushima as stripped down, dark with nostalgia, poignant and powerful. Downbeat gave the album four and a half stars.

Ahmad Jamal turned 90 this year. Prior to the pandemic he was still performing live in concert.

– Bozzie 🎷

#poinciana #ahmad jamal #ray crawford #israel crosby #vernel fournier

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tfc2211 · 5 years ago

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Recorded Live at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, CA, February 16, 1963 George Shearing - Piano John Gray - Guitar Gary Burton - Vibraphone Bill Yancey - Bass Vernel Fournier - Drums Armando Peraza - Congas

#George Shearing #Moanin'#Jazz #Live Jazz

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raggywaltz1954 · 6 years ago

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At The Pershing: But Not For Me // Ahmad Jamal (Argo LP 628)

Here’s the record that caused me to re-examine why I buy jazz records. Here’s the record that re-sparked my excitement and love towards records. And at the end of the day, here’s an album that has some fantastic music on it.

The Music

The Tune: “Poinciana” Recorded: 16 January, 1958 at the Pershing Hotel, Chicago, IL Personnel:

Ahmad Jamal- Piano

Israel Crosby- Bass

Vernell…

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#Ahmad Jamal #Argo #Live Jazz

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blackkudos · 7 years ago

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Geri Allen

Geri Allen (born June 12, 1957) is an American composer, educator, and jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and Charles Lloyd. She cites her primary influences to be her parents, Mount Vernell Allen Jr, and Barbara Jean Allen, and her primary musical influences to be mentors Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, and Betty Carter, as well as pianists Herbie Hancock, Mary Lou Williams, Hank Jones, Alice Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Bud Powell, and mentor Dr. Billy Taylor. Allen is an Associate Professor of Music and the Director of the Jazz Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

Early life

Allen was born in Pontiac, Michigan. She received her early music education at the Cass Technical High School in Detroit and the Jazz Development Workshop, where her mentor was the trumpeter/teacher Marcus Belgrave. In 1979, Allen earned her bachelor's degree in jazz studies from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She studied under composer Thomas Kerr, and pianists Raymond Jackson, John Malachi, Fred Irby, Arthur Dawkins, and Komla Amoaku. After graduation, she moved to New York City, where she studied with the veteran bop pianist Kenny Barron. From there, at the behest of the jazz educator Nathan Davis, Allen attended the University of Pittsburgh, earning a master's degree in ethnomusicology, returning to New York in 1982, and began touring with Mary Wilson and The Supremes.

Later life and career

In the mid-1980s, Allen became a charter member of both the Black Rock Coalition and the Brooklyn M-Base movement, a collective including saxophonists Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Gary Thomas, and vocalist Cassandra Wilson among others. Allen played on several of Coleman's albums, including his first, 1985's Motherland Pulse, providing the composition "The Glide Was in the Ride", a track listed on the New Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. She also was the original keyboarder of the band initially most associated with M-Base: the funk-oriented Steve Coleman and Five Elements.

Allen's own 1984 debut album as a leader, The Printmakers, with Anthony Cox and Andrew Cyrille, was recorded in Germany and the first album to be released by the newly founded German label Minor Music. She went on playing with AACM's Joseph Jarman, Frank Lowe, then toured and recorded with altoist Oliver Lake. She released a solo piano album in 1985, Home Grown, followed by an album and a concert tour with the large ensemble project Open on All Sides in the Middle that featured vocalist Shahita Nurallah and veteran tap dancer Lloyd Story alongside Steve Coleman, Robin Eubanks and percussionist Mino Cinelu. Bassist Jaribu Shahid and drummer Tani Tabbal also joined Allen for her last recording for Minor Music, Twylight, released in 1989, again featuring vocals on two tracks, additional percussionists and herself also on synthesizer.

In 1988 came Etudes, a cooperative trio effort with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Until 1990 several recordings of the trio followed, released on different labels. Allen also played on the drummer's 1989 Monk in Motian, and was part of Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra Montreal concert in 1989. In 1995, she was the first recipient of Soul Train's Lady of Soul Award for jazz album of the year for Twenty-One, featuring Tony Williams and Ron Carter, and the first woman, and youngest person to receive the Danish "Jazz Par Prize". Allen continued to push the improvisational envelope with Sound Museum, a 1996 recording made under the leadership of Ornette Coleman. The Gathering followed in 1998. The Life of a Song was recorded with veterans Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Her 2010 album Flying Toward the Sound was rated one of the Best Of 2010 on NPR, Downbeat, All About Jazz, and the Village Voice's Jazz Critics' Poll that year. "Timeless Portraits and Dreams" featured NEA Jazz Masters Jimmy Cobb and Ron Carter, as well as opera icon George Shirley singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing", saxophonist and mentor Donald Walden, vocalist Carmen Lundy, and the Atlanta Jazz Chorus under the direction of composer/multi-reedist Dwight Andrews.

In 2006, Allen was commissioned to compose "For the Healing of the Nations", a Sacred Jazz Suite for Voices, written in tribute to the victims, survivors and their families of the 9/11 attacks. The suite was performed by Howard University's Afro-Blue Jazz Choir, under the direction of Connaitre Miller. Oliver Lake, Craig Harris, Andy Bey, Dwight Andrews, Mary Stallings, Carmen Lundy, Nneena Freelon, Jay Hoggard, and other jazz musicians also participated. The poetry was contributed by Sandra Turner-Barnes.

Allen took part in a documentary film titled Live Music, Community & Social Conscience (2007) while performing at the Frog Island Music Festival in Michigan. Allen contributed original music to the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, which received a Peabody Award. Also, Allen contributed orchestrations to Andy Bey's "American Song" which was nominated for a Grammy Award. She was the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship. Allen's composition "Refractions" was released in response to her Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, as "Flying Towards The Sound", along with three short art films by film maker/photographer, Carrie Mae Weems, for Motema Music in 2010. Geri Allen & Timeline Live, her second recording for Motema, featured bassist Kenny Davis, drummer Kassa Overall and tap dancer Maurice Chestnut, and was released simultaneously with Flying Toward The Sound.

Allen received the "African-American Classical Music Award" from the Women of the New Jersey Chapter of Spelman College, and also received "A Salute to African-American Women: Phenomenal Woman" from the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Epsilon chapter at the University of Michigan, in 2008. Allen received a nomination in 2011 for the NAACP Image Award for Best Jazz Album, Geri Allen & Timeline Live. She was also nominated for both The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in 2011 under the Live Performance Album category, and for "Best Jazz Pianist", by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Allen performed this year in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Monument Unveiling Concert, A Theatrical & Musical Celebration Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., MLK: A Monumental Life, presented in Constitution Hall, by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Allen previously served as an Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation at the School Of Music Theatre & Dance, at the University of Michigan, and, as of July 2012, was a curator in New York City at the STONE. In 2013, Allen returned to her alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, as an Associate Professor of Music and to replace her retired former mentor, Nathan Davis, as the Director of the Jazz Studies Program at the university. In May 2014, Allen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.. In spring 2017 she toured Europe as a guest artist with McCoy Tyner.

Discography

As leader/co-leaderAs sidewoman

With Roy Brooks

Duet in Detroit (Enja, 1989 [1993])

With Betty Carter

Droppin' Things (Verve, 1993)

Feed the Fire (Verve, 1993)

With Ornette Coleman

Sound Museum: Hidden Man (Harmolodic/Verve, 1996)

Sound Museum: Three Women (Harmolodic/Verve, 1996)

With Steve Coleman

Motherland Pulse (JMT, 1985)

And Five Elements: On the Edge of Tomorrow (JMT, 1986)

And Five Elements: World Expansion (JMT, 1986)

And Five Elements: Sine Die (Pangaea, 1986) on one track only

With Buddy Collette

Flute Talk (Soul Note, 1988) with James Newton

With Charlie Haden

Etudes (Soul Note, 1987)

The Montreal Tapes: with Geri Allen and Paul Motian (Verve, 1989 [1997])

The Montreal Tapes: Liberation Music Orchestra (Verve, 1989 [1999])

With Oliver Lake

Expandable Language (Black Saint, 1984)

Otherside (Gramavision, 1988)

Talkin' Stick (Passin' Thru, 2000)

At This Time (Intakt, 2009)

With Charles Lloyd

Lift Every Voice (ECM, 2002)

Jumping the Creek (ECM, 2004)

With Frank Lowe

Decision in Paradise (Soul Note, 1984)

With Paul Motian

Monk in Motian (JMT, 1988)

With Greg Osby

Mindgames (JMT, 1988)

With Dewey Redman

Living on the Edge (Black Saint, 1989)

With Gregory Charles Royal

Dream Come True (GCR 1979 reissued Celeste Japan 2008)

With Woody Shaw

Bemsha Swing (Blue Note, 1986 [1997])

With John Stubblefield

Bushman Song (Enja, 1986)

With Gary Thomas

By Any Means Necessary (JMT, 1989)

With Trio 3 (Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman & Andrew Cyrille)

At This Time (Intakt, 2009)

Celebrating Mary Lou Williams (Intakt, 2011)

With the Mary Lou Williams Collective

Zodiac Suite: Revisited (Mary, 2006)

Wikipedia

#Geri Allen #06-12

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