Ahmad Jamal • Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse 1963-1964 Deep Digs Music Group/Jazz Detective DDJD-01
Ahmad Jamal • Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse 1965-1966 Deep Digs Music Group/Jazz Detective DDJD-02
or ears used to the fractured rhythms of Thelonious Monk or the keyboard gymnastics of Oscar Peterson, the fluid swing and nuanced lyricism of pianist Ahmad Jamal can be a welcome change of pace. Jamal was born in Pittsburgh in 1930 and began playing piano when he was three years old. By seven, he was studying privately, and he was performing by his teens. In 1955, his debut recording, Chamber Music of the New Jazz, was widely influential, and in the late '50s he began a string of recordings on the Argo label. One of these, from 1959, Jamal at the Penthouse, is related to the Emerald City Nights releases in name only. That "Penthouse" was the Nola Penthouse Studio in New York City, and the roster of musicians included a 15-piece string section. These two recordings are completely different. The performances, collecting numbers from five separate sets, were recorded at Seattle's Penthouse Club and feature only piano trio: Jamal; Richard Evans or Jamil Nasser on bass; and Chuck Lampkin, Vernel Fournier or Frank Gant on drums. Jamal, now 92, personally approved the release of the sessions. The music is a mixture of well-known and not-so-well-known covers interspersed with a couple of Jamal originals. The earlier set features a languid cover of "Tangerine" whose winding playing builds anticipation of the musical vistas coming. The final cut is a compact reading of the Gershwins' "But Not for Me" that ends the set with anticipation and pathos. The later set begins with a fifteen-minute version of Rodgers & Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and concludes with a sub-three-minute version of "Whisper Not." Jamal is a master at pacing, not only of each tune but his own phrasing. This is on display with every cut, along with his friendly, sparkling sense of melody and some sympathetic backing. I hear fleeting echoes of Bill Evans and Vince Guaraldi here and there, and I wonder if they were intentional. Influence is sometimes the product of osmosis, sometimes an outgrowth of prevailing styles at a point in time. Here, it may be something simpler: homage (or my imagination). Zev Feldman earned the nickname "the Jazz Detective" from his earlier releases on the Resonance Records and Reel to Real Recordings labels, for which he unearthed previously unknown performances from the likes of Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderley, and Johnny Griffin, among other luminaries. Here, he launches the new Jazz Detective imprint with recordings of performances aired live on Seattle's KING-FM. Jim Wilkes, a local radio host and broadcast engineer, is responsible for the recordings, which the owners of the Penthouse Club have made available for release. There are more tapes, including another Jamal trio performance from 1968, waiting to see the light of musical day. Bernie Grundman did the mastering for these two sets from the analog tapes, and the LPs were pressed at Optimal in Germany -- audiophile cred all the way. The sound varies only a little from set to set. It's intimate, even close up, throughout. In some ways, especially the left-right spread of the soundstage, it's unpolished, but that reaps its own rewards, better conveying the right-nowness of the live recording. The booklet that comes with each LP is a trove of valuable information and includes essays of appreciation from Ramsey Lewis, Hiromi and Kenny Barron, among others. But Jamal's own words -- on his playing, the musicians with whom he plays, and performing live -- give the greatest insight into this music. These are two substantial releases, and appropriately the
LPs are slated for Record Store Day's Black Friday event, during which the 3000 numbered
copies of each will sell out quickly. CDs and downloads will be available on December 2,
however, so all will not be lost if you are not in line early the day after Thanksgiving. |
