Ahmad Jamal - "Steppin Out With a Dream" (1976)

"Handicapper" excerpt

"Tucson" excerpt

More info and downloads for this album further down ...

****** ELECTRIC JAMAL ******

Steve Huey's bio of Ahmad Jamal at AMG contends that "Jamal's manipulations of space and silence, tension and release, and dynamics all broke new ground, and had an impact far beyond Jamal's favored piano trio format. As an arranger, Jamal made the most of his small-group settings by thinking of them in orchestral terms: using his trademark devices to create contrast and dramatic effect, and allowing the rhythm section a great deal of independence in its interplay."

In the early 1970s, Jamal began to broaden this experimentation both instrumentally and stylistically, moving beyond the trio format to include actual orchestral textures, vocal choruses and electric instrumentation, including the incorporation of a fender rhodes.

Like many jazz artists of the time who reached across the RnB and pop dividing walls and plugged in electric instruments, he faced a lot of flak from most jazz critics, many of whom continue to bypass or disparage this electric period.

These 70s albums are worth a closer look, so let's check them out ...

'Stolen moments' excerpt

Jamal started the decade with "The Awakening" in 1970. No electric keyboards here, but this acoustic piano trio album, some twenty years into his career, has the pianist wringing every edge of tonality from his instrument - he's creating denser textures than before, but simultaneously he's using silence and space to create drama as as alternately pounds and caresses the keys. It's as if he's reached some sort of epiphany as to the textures he can create with just one instrument at this time, and it's not surprising that he soon began to expand his instrumental palette.




'Effendi' excerpt

For a few tracks on his 1971 live trio album "Freeflight", recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival on June 17th of that year, Jamal establishes the main themes on acoustic piano then begins to solo on rhodes. He's somewhat enamoured with the instrument's on-board tremelo/LFO (the "pulsing" effect) and you can hear drummer Frank Gant setting complex snare drum patterns against the effect.

The dense, mid-range clouds of rhodes chords allow space for bassist Jamil Suleiman Nasser to improvise in his upper range. Jamal returns to the piano for more percussive sections and theme reprisals. The engineers are clearly not used to amplified instruments and are slightly 'off' the rhodes amp with their microphone placement.




'Bogota' excerpt

Released in 1972 but coming from the same 1971 Montreux concert, 'Outertimeinnerspace' contains two long live tracks. On the first of these, "Bogota", Jamal's increasingly utilising the individual strengths of acoustic and electric piano to widen the overall dynamic range of his compositions.Three minutes into the track, he turns away from his acoustic piano and begins to create clouds of tremelo rhodes chords, alternating with fast solo blues runs. Six minutes later, the acoustic piano returns with a percussive attack, then as the dynamics soften, he returns to the rhodes again.

Even as early as this concert, Jamal seems to have refined his "orchestration" of the two instruments to fit into the subtlety of his compositional dynamics.



'Superstition' excerpt
download : WAV of "Superstition"

Jamal's 1973 move from Impulse to 20th Century Records for the album "Ahmad Jamal '73" was a radical step in many different ways. He's on rhodes throughout, and working with full orchestral arrangements and vocal chorus, courtesy of arranger Richard Evans of Soulful Strings and Marlena Shaw fame.

Like Herbie Hancock and others before him, Jamal moves on from his initial fascination with the rhodes' effects panel and begins to explore the nuances of the instrument's dynamic colours, in particular exploring bell-like tones from careful manipulation of the tines, at times producing soft tones almost like a vibraphone.

Tracks such as "Superstition", "The World is a Ghetto" and "Children of the Night" continue to live on in many a beatmaker's MPC, and the album launched Jamal into a new RnB market.




'Ghetto Child' excerpt

The commercial success of the previous album led to 1974's "Jamalca" (DOWNLOAD) another album with Richard Evans' orchestral and vocal arrangements of well-known tracks, with Jamal on both rhodes and acoustic piano.

Tracks covered include Foster Sylvers' "Misdemeanour", Gaye's "Trouble Man" and a then-popular version of the "M.A.S.H." theme. I tend to find the acoustic piano tracks a little overblown here, with the orchestral flourishes competing directly with Jamal's equivalent ornamental keyboard "sweeps" and arpeggios in the arrangements, whereas the rhodes tracks "sit" better with the orchestra. Nevertheless, there's some great stuff here and it's well worth grabbing.




'Spanish Interlude' excerpt

Both the title and the style of "Jamal Plays Jamal", his 2nd album in 1974, seem to point to Ahmad Jamal taking some control back in the overall orchestration of his sound - he's co-credited with Richard Evans for the arrangements of the six original tracks that make up the album.

This time, both the acoustic piano and rhodes sit well alongside the rich string arrangements and occasional horns, and the voices are gone. His trio partners Jamil Nasser and Frank Gant, who'd been somewhat buried on the previous two albums, are both given space to breathe in the (relatively) sparser lineup, to which percussionist Azzedin Weston is added.

Several great tracks, "Eclipse" and "Swahililand" are personal favourites.



'Chaser' excerpt

Things are smoothing out a little (too much) in the electric tracks for the last of the big Evans productions, "Genetic Walk" (recorded in '75 but released much later) and the vocal choruses are back. Nevertheless, some interesting chords and textures in the string and brass arrangements carry over from the last album. There's a lot more acoustic piano than rhodes. and there are also three piano trio tracks that hark back to his earlier work.

With clashing styles and three or four different lineups recorded over several sessions, one could conjecture that there may have been some disagreement over Jamal's direction at this stage, with the pianist obviously eager to spend more time on his original instrument. This was his last album to hit the RnB charts.

"Handicapper" excerpt

The cover of 1976's "Steppin Out With a Dream" (links in comments) looks like Ahmad's taken a few snorts from Van McCoy's drug pouch before indulging in some art director's equestrian fantasy, and we've got a ripe candidate for Greg's new crap jazz covers blog.

Nonetheless, the music is really good - three small combo tracks with rhodes and acoustic piano : "Handicapper", "Tucson" and "Crossfire" - and two piano standards with simple bass accompaniment : "My One and Only Love" and "Prelude to a Kiss".

"Tucson" excerpt

It's great to hear Jamal playing rhodes in a studio album without an orchestra, allowing more space for the instrument's full tonality. Jamal's longtime drummer Frank Gant is supported by percussionist Seldon Newton and bassist John Heard, a veteran of several solid George Duke, Cal Tjader, Joe Henderson and Moacir Santos albums, and who had appeared on a few tracks on "Genetic Walk".

"Crossfire" excerpt

The most significant new presence on this album is guitarist Calvin Keys, who'd released a few of his own albums on the Black Jazz label, such as 1971's "Shawn-Neeq", and appeared on others by Gene Russell and Doug Carn. Although he'd been buried on a few tracks on "Genetic Walk", in this smaller lineup his Grant Green-style guitar lines are the perfect soul-jazz foil for Jamal's keyboards. It's a pity that there aren't too many albums featuring the two of them.

Jamal produced the album himself, under supervision from Paul Gayten, a former New Orleans band leader who had turned to production.

sample trainspotter's alert :
Ahmad Jamal's been heavily sampled in hip hop - see the collections of originals-vs-flips in the miscellaneous section below. Anyway, the sample I noticed when listening to this album was the opening track "Handicapper". There's a few chords there that make up the body of a Marc Mac track called "Atlanta Walking" on his beats-and-civil-rights album "It's Right To Be Civil", which is worth checking out. I've also read that "Crossfire" is sampled in Dilated People's "Pay Attention".

(album credits further down )

'Bellows' excerpt

Later in 1976 Jamal recorded a live album with the same lineup, "Live at Oil Can Harry's". Jamal's just on acoustic piano, apart from some brief rhodes comping behind Calvin Key's solo in "Bellows", a track from "Genetic Walk".

There's another version of McCoy Tyner's "Effendi", an extended version of Jamal's best known song "Poinciana", and an original called "Folklore". Once again it's great to hear the chemistry between Jamal and Calvin Keys, and Seldon Newton's conga work drives this one along quite differently from Jamal's earlier live albums.


'Black Cow' excerpt

"One" (also on this blog) was recorded from May-July 1978, and has three producers : Richard Evans; 'Partridge Family' arranger/keyboardist Mike Melvoin and Sigidi (S.O.S Band) individually produce and arrange a large group that includes synthesisers (Melvoin), horn sections, vocal groups (Eloise Laws and others), and several percussionists (Paulinho da Costa, Bill Summers, Hal Blaine and others). My favourite track is a cover of Steely Dan's "Black Cow", with girl chorus vocals and Jamal on the clavinet. Check it out. Not one for the jazz purists!





'You're Welcome, Stop On By' excerpt


'Boatride' excerpt

On 1979's "Intervals", now also posted on this blog. Jamal is still on rhodes and occasional synth on a few tracks, but clearly headed back towards smaller acoustic groups. Half the album's produced by Paul Gayten, the other half by "Fifth Dimension" mastermind Bones Howe. AMG's Scott Yanow hates it, which for some of us counts as a recommendation. Other tracks are 'Jordie', 'So in Love' , 'Reggae', 'The Tube' and 'Bones'. This was Jamal's last release for 20th Century Records.

With the exception of some keyboard work on 1980's "Night Song" and 1985's "Digital Works", Ahmad Jamal primarily returned to the acoustic piano after the 1970s, and has gone on to release at least another thirty albums.

AHMAD JAMAL - STEPPIN OUT WITH A DREAM (1976)

TRACKLIST

01. 'Handicapper' (7:37) - Jamal 
02. 'Prelude To A Kiss' (7:50) - Ellington, Gordon, Mills 
03. 'My One And Only Love' (8:48) - Mellin, Wood
04. 'Tucson' (9:10) - Jamal
05. 'Crossfire' (9:56) - Jamal

MUSICIANS 

Bass - John Heard (misspelt "Hurd" on cover)
Drums - Frank Gant
Guitar - Calvin Keys
Keyboards - Ahmad Jamal
Percussion - Selden Newton
 
PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Released 1976
Produced by Ahmad Jamal under the supervision of Paul Gayten
20th Century Records
Catalogue # T-515
Recorded & Mixed at Village Recorders, Los Angeles, California
Engineer - Neil Brody
Photography - Michael Paladin
Art Direction - Jamico
Cover & Liner Design - Michael Levy
Illustration - Trici Venola

AHMAD JAMAL DISCOGRAPHY from Blogopolis

1951-55 "The Legendary Okeh & Epic Sessions" (APE) at vzdora.net / alternative
1951-55 "Poinciana" (compilation) at farofa moderna
1955 "Chamber music of the New Jazz" donated by Green (thanks!)

1956 'Count 'em 88' at Hook's Gems

1958 "Ahmad's Blues" at Buns o Plenty / alternate

1958 "The Legendary Ahmad Jamal Trio Live" at vzdora.net / alternative
1958-61 "Cross Country Tour" (Argo comp, FLAC) at CIA Contributions #5
1958 "At the Pershing" Vol 1/2 in comp at My Jazz World

1958 "Jamal at the Pershing Vol 2" at Sun Ship
1958 "At The Pershing/But Not for Me" (APE) at Your Track Music Club
1958 "At the Pershing / But Not For Me" (MP3) at Musica En Harmonia group / alternative / alternative
1958 "Live at the Pershing and the Spotlight Club" at Musical Moadom

1958 "Volume 4" at Sun Ship

1958 "Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal" at Sun Ship
1959 "Jamal At The Penthouse" (MP3) at Musica Desde Las Antipodas
1959 "Jamal At The Penthouse" (FLAC) at Call It Anything

1960 "Happy Moods" at Sun Ship
1961 "Alhambra" at Musica En Harmonia group

1962 "Ahmad Jamal at the Blackhawk" at Sun Ship / alternate comp

1962 "Macanudo " at Sun Ship / alternative / alternative
1962 "All Of You" at Sun Ship

1962 "Naked City Theme" at Sun Ship

1963 "Naked City Theme" at Sun Ship
1965 "Rhapsody" (MP3) at My Favourite Sound
1965 "Rhapsody" (FLAC) at CIA Contributions #4

1965 "Extensions" at Sun Ship
1965 "The Roar of theGreaspaint, the Smell of the Crowd" at Sun Ship

1966 "Heatwave" at Sun Ship
1967 "Standard Eyes" at My My Jazz World
1967 "Alhambra" at Best of Both Worlds
1967 "Cry Young" at Sun Ship
1968 "The Bright, The Blue and The Beautiful" at Sun Ship
1968 "Tranquility" (FLAC) at Call It Anything
1969 "At The Top : Poinciana Revisited" at The Musik Lounge
1970 "The Awakening" (MP3) at Oufar Khan / alternative
1970 "The Awakening" (FLAC) at Flaclossless or CIA
1971 "Freeflight" also on this blog. 
1971 "Outertimeinnerspace' (MP3) - thanks Gildas!
 1971 "Outertimeinnerspace" (FLAC) at Call it Anything
1972 "Inspiration" (comp of 65-68 material) at My Jazz World
1973 "Ahmad Jamal 73" at My Jazz World
1974 "Jamal Plays Jamal" at Baby Grandpa
1974 "Jamalca" DOWNLOAD
1976 "Live At Oil Can Larry's" at Pharoah's Dance
1976 "Steppin out with a Dream" see base of this post
1978 "One" also on this blog
1979 "Intervals" also on this blog

1980 "Night Song" / FLAC

1980 "Genetic Walk" at El Monje
1980 "Live at Bubba's" (FLAC) at CIA Contributions #4
1985 "Digital Works" at Inconstant Sol
1986 'Rossiter Road' @ Avax
1987 "Crystal" (APE) at vzdora.net / alternative / alternative
1989 "Pittsburgh" (FLAC) at Call it Anything
1989 "Pittsburgh" at Musica En Harmonia group
1992 "Blues Alley" at Musica Desde Las Antipodas
1992 "Chicago Revisited : Live at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase" at CIA
1995 "I Remember Duke, Hoagy & Strayhorn" at vzdora.net / alternative
1996 "The Essence, Pt. 1" donated by Art Simon. Thanks!

1998 'Nature : the Essence Pt. 3" 
1998 "Ahmad Jamal With the Assai Quartet" at Inconstant Sol
1999 "Live In Germany" (bootleg) at Bogard's Jazztapes
2000 "Ahmad Jamal Trio and George Coleman" (Zurich) at Ubu Roi

2001 'Picture Perfect' at Free4Downloads
2001 "Live at Jazz Baltica" (bootleg) at Kingcake Krypt
2002 "In Search Of Momentum" MP3 at Musica Desde Las Antipodas
2002 "In Search Of Momentum" FLAC at Call It Anything
2003 'Live In Paris" (APE) at vzdora.net / alternative / alternative
2008 "It's Magic" at Jazz a Gogo / alternative

MISCELLANEOUS

Ahmad Jamal Samples (4 volumes) at T.R.O.Y. or SL Saico
originals and hip hop flips

POST CREDITS 

"Steppin out with a Dream" vinyl rip and scans by Simon666
"Superstition" track CD rip by Simon666.
The "Jamalca" rip is a 224kbps soulseek find from pre-blog days that I've re-upped for this post.

Apart from the blogs noted in the discography, album links within this post go to :
My Jazz World, Pharoah's Dance, Oufar Khan, Funky Disposition, Baby Grandpa, Rock Savage, My Favorite Sound, J Thyme Kind, Blak's Lair, Things and Stuff and Music, and Inconstant Sol.Thanks to Wallofsound for the series of Jamal posts at Inconstant Sol prompted by this post.

Please thank and support any blogs you click through to.

DOWNLOADS
(please leave a comment if you grab these)

ALBUMS :

“Stepping out with a dream” – Ahmad Jamal (1976)

DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3

"Jamalca" - Ahmad Jamal (1974)

DOWNLOAD MP3

TRACKS:

"Superstition" (from '73") - WAV