The Electric Jamal history that accompanied the "Stepping Out With A Dream" post some months back prompted me first to search out Ahmad Jamal's"Intervals", and also to ask around for this 1978 album.
Hanimex 3000 (check his blog) has come forward with his own vinyl rip and kindly dropped it into the "Intervals" comments for the ongoing Jamal discography. Merci bien Hanimex! Please see the text file in the download for more info about his blog, radio show and other things.
Well, this one should send some Jamal purists screaming for the hills. Scott Yanow from AMG seemingly collapsed in a fit of indignation after his paragraph review of "Intervals" and didn't bother with this one. Yanow probably would have had a heart attack if he'd listened to my favourite track here, a version of Steely Dan's "Black Cow" on which Jamal only plays (gasp) clavinet. It's cute, soulful and has a girl vocal chorus (including Eloise Laws).
Like "Intervals" which followed it the next year, "One" is an eclectic mix of styles and personnel that did not bode well for sales. Nevertheless, some great tracks here, and worth checking out. I'm a bit worried that this is the second album in a month on this blog with a version of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are", but I'll get over it and so will you. But is E-Mile up to the challenge of a compilation??
These people are all big production arrangers, and so big productions you get. Melvoin is on synths, and there's another rhodes player on "Black Cow". Half the tracks feature string and horn arrangements, and there's percussionists galore, including the ubiquitous Paulinho Da Costa, Rufus drummer Andre Fisher, fellow Partridge Family session-star Hal Blaine, and even Bill Summers from the Headhunters (who featured on the Hancock bootleg I posted on the weekend).
On these busier tracks - "One", "Black Cow", "Jet" - Jamal seems sometimes content to sit back and pound away on the acoustic almost as part of the percussion section, as if in training for an arm wrestle with McCoy Tyner - breaking out with his trademark flourishes, but remaining part of a rhythmic interface even in his solo spots. Check the way he integrates his piano into the flute-driven track "One" in the preview at the top of the post.
He gets more harmonic space in the 'band' numbers like "Dynamo" and "Festival", built around his then-core live group of Calvin Keys, John Heard and Kenneth Nash, though there's still at least two percussionists per track. Jamal's own composition "Sumayah" is the only solo piano spot here.
So anyway, take your big black cow and get out of here, and thank Hanimex 3000 in the comments puh-leez.
One (Ahad) David Crawford (flute & alto flute), Mike Melvoin (polymoog & minimoog), Ahmad Jamal (piano), John Rowin (guitar), Chuck Rainey (bass), Roger Barthelemy (drums), Bill Summers (bongos & percussion) Conducted and arranged by Sigidi
Just the Way You Are Mike Melvoin (polymoog synthesizer), Ahmad Jamal (piano), John Rowin & Mario Henderson (guitar), John Heard (bass), Scotty Edwards (electric bass), Andre Fisher (drums), Shondo Rondo Akeim (congas), Geoff Howe (percussion).
Jet Ahmad Jamal (piano), John Rowin & Mario Henderson (electric guitar), Scotty Edwards (bass), Andre Fisher (drums), Shondo Rondo Akeim (congas), Paulinho DaCosta (percussion) Horn section arranged and conducted by Mike MelvoinRhythm section arranged by Richard Evans and directed by Sigidi.
Black Cow Ahmad Jamal (clavinet), John Rowin (guitar), Scotty Edwards (bass), Steve Bowling (Fender Rhodes), Roger Barthelemy (drums), Bill Summers (conga), Hal Blaine (percussion), Eloise Laws, Stephanie Spruill, Virginia Ayers (vocals) Conducted and arranged by SigidiHorns arranged and conducted by Mike Melvoin.
Dynamo Ahmad Jamal (piano), Calvin Keys (guitar), John Heard (bass), Eddie Marshall (drums), Kenny Nash (congas), Hal Blaine (percussion).
Sumayah Ahmad Jamal (solo piano)
Festival Ahmad Jamal (piano), Calvin Keys (guitar), John Heard (bass), Eddie Marshall (drums), Kenny Nash (congas), Paulino DaCosta (percussion).
DETAILS 20th Century Fox Records catalogue # M 555 Recorded at : Hollywood, Filmways / Heider Recordings Recording dates : May, June & July 1978 AHMAD JAMAL BLOG DISCOGRAPHY is here POST CREDITS Vinyl rip by Hanimex 3000. Some credits from Jean Princes' Ahmad Jamal discography. Other blogs linked in this post are : Hanimex 3000, Orgy In Rhythm, E-Mile Says Songs Do the Matter, My Jazz World, Cosmic Music, Oufar Khan and Blak's Lair. Please thank these fine folks if you visit their blogs and download their albums.
Long time since the last post, back at university for a new year, and a few weeks of pericarditis which is not fun, but here we are ...
This was another album that I wanted to track down after the Electric Jamal post that accompanied the album "Steppin Out With a Dream" a few months back, so here's a nice clean vinyl rip for blogland.
By the time of this, his final album for 20th Century Records, Ahmad Jamal seemed to want to pull away from the dense orchestrations and electric stylings of earlier albums for the label like "Ahmad Jamal '73" and "Jamalca" - he's on his way back to the acoustic piano and smaller group work. You can see that transition taking place on this sometimes uneven album, his last to include the rhodes as an instrument.
'Boatride'
The best rhodes work is on the stepper "Boatride", where he's developed a flowing yet precise electric piano style that's markedly different from the pounding acoustic piano style that he pursues on "The Tube", a frenetic conga-laden piece that I also like.
'The Tube'
On"You're Welcome, Stop On By"he returns to his "Outertimeinnerspace"and "Freeflight" - era voicing method, where he establishes flowing chord textures on the rhodes before turning to acoustic piano for the more dynamic solos and melodic statement.
'You're Welcome, Stop On By'
Elsewhere he's working with smaller groups, on tracks like "Jordie" and a great version of "So In Love", on which he's just accompanied by acoustic bass. The album is called a "compilation" on the cover, which it's actually not (I've checked, you know what I'm like) - but it's certainly a compilation of quite different ideas and sessions. Half the album's produced by Paul Gayten, and the other half by Fifth-Dimension svengali Bones Howe, who's also the subject of one of the lesser tracks, "Bones".
Strangely, there's a faded-in "excerpt" of "My One and Only Love", which in its short duration recalls the fuller version on the Gayten-produced "Steppin Out With a Dream". The sheer clumsiness of the editing suggests, perhaps, some dissatisfaction with the record company and/or the sessions. The only real stinker is the inappropriately-named "Reggae", a confused slight calypso which seems to pass the baton to each musician in turn in search of some sort of inspiration or swing.
In the end it's a 50-50 effort, with a couple of great funky tracks and Jamal relishing his return to the piano, on which he's always superb. Hope you enjoy this one!
TRACKLIST
01. 'You're Welcome, Stop On By' - (Womack- Thomas) - 5:48 02. 'Jordie' - (Jamal) - 3:49 03. 'So In Love' - (Cole Porter) - 3:39 04. 'Reggae' - (Jamal) - 3:47 05. 'Boatride' - (Jamal) - 5:09 06. 'Excerpt From "My One And Only Love" ' - (Mellin-Wood) - 2:09 07. 'The Tube' - (Jamal) - 4:14 08. 'Bones' - (Jamal) - 6:20 MUSICIANS
A total mystery ! Not named on the cover, not noted in Jean Prince's otherwise meticulous discography. Ahmad Jamal on keyboards; plus bass, drums, occasional brass section and guitar. PRODUCTION
Label - 20th Century Records Catalogue number - T-622 Producer - Bones Howe (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 8) Producer -Paul Gayten (tracks: 4, 5, 6) Producer - Ahmad Jamal (track 3) Compilation Producer - Michael Stewart Mastered By - Mike Reese Mixed By - Barney Perkins Cover Painting - Joan Swanson Design - Roland Young Edited at Sierra Pacific, Los Angeles Mixed at Golden Sound, LA Mastered at the Mastering Lab
I talked about this album - Ahmad Jamal's first on which he played the fender rhodes - in the context of the "Steppin Out With A Dream" post the other week, so have a read at that link about where it sits in his career. I was a little disappointed with the quality of the available rip that I'd linked to in the discography, so thought I would upload my own copy.
It's recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1971. In the tracks "Effendi" and "Manhattan Reflections", 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. Apart from the two rhodes tracks, there's a nice cover of Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance", and an extended version of one of Jamal's best-known tracks, "Poinciana".
Note that the Jamal blog discography (copied again below) has expanded since that last post, thanks to some uploads by Wallofsound from Inconstant Sol, and also reader Art Simon.
Impulse AS-9217 Producers - Ed Michel, Ahmad Jamal Recording Engineers - Stephen Sulke, Carlos Olms Recorded in performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. July 1971
"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
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)
On these busier tracks - "One", "Black Cow", "Jet" - Jamal seems sometimes content to sit back and pound away on the acoustic almost as part of the percussion section, as if in training for an arm wrestle with McCoy Tyner - breaking out with his trademark flourishes, but remaining part of a rhythmic interface even in his solo spots. Check the way he integrates his piano into the flute-driven track "One" in the preview at the top of the post.
