Ahmad Jamal Trio Volume IV
| Ahmad Jamal Trio Volume IV | ||||
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| Live album by Ahmad Jamal | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Argo | |||
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Format (s) |
LP / CD |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
36:15 |
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| occupation |
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Dave Usher |
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Studio (s) |
Spotlight Club, Washington DC |
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Ahmad Jamal Trio Volume IV is a jazz album by the pianist Ahmad Jamal . The recordings were made on September 5 and 6, 1958 at the Spotlight Club, Washington DC and were released in the same year on Argo Records .
background
The live recording contains recordings from a concert by the Ahmad Jamal trio with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier . Further material from this concert appeared on the Argo double LP Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal . On the same days other pieces were recorded, which appeared on the Argo album Poinciana in 1963 . In 2007 the 2-CD edition Complete Live at the Spotlite Club 1958 (Gambit) was released.
Track list
- The Ahmad Jamal Trio - Volume IV (Argo LP 636)
- Taboo ( Margarita Lecuona , Bob Russell ) 3:55
- Should I ( Nacio Herb Brown , Arthur Freed ) 3:31
- Stompin at the Savoy ( Benny Goodman , Andy Razaf , Edgar Sampson , Chick Webb ) 4:15
- The Girl Next Door ( Ralph Blane , Hugh Martin ) 3:22
- I Wish I Knew ( Mack Gordon , Harry Warren ) 3:27
- Cheek to Cheek ( Irving Berlin ) 4:46
- Autumn in New York ( Vernon Duke ) 3:11
- Secret Love ( Sammy Fain , Paul Francis Webster ) 3:40
- Squatty Roo ( Johnny Hodges ) 2:14
- That's All (Alan Brandt, Bob Haymes) 2:29
reception
Scott Yanow gave the album 4½ (out of five) stars in Allmusic, praising: “All of Jamal's recordings from the 1950s are highly recommended, and this one includes impressive versions of Taboo , The Girl Next Door , Cheek to Cheek and Secret Love . "
Gerald Lascelles, who reviewed the album in November 1959 in the British Jazz Journal , attempted to comment on leading jazz pianists of the time; he calls Thelonious Monk the "thinker", Oscar Peterson "the machine", Erroll Garner the "joke", Count Basie the "boor" and Duke Ellington "the seeker". Jamal it was necessary to here as "the repeater" ( the repeater ) supplement, the author wrote. In his view, Jamal must take the risk of bottoming out for anyone who hates clichés, but there is "an irresistible fascination in his game"; the filigree tracery that he wraps around such banal melodies as “Should I” and “Secret Love” is a tribute to Jamal's teachers, more than to the rulers of Tin Pan Alley .
Without question, Jamal was a romantic in the best traditions of Chopin and Tchaikovsky , wrote Lascelles. “He seldom leaves the tune, and when he does, it's for the sake of the indescribable stereotypes I mentioned earlier. They inevitably come like thawing after the snow and dissolve into nothing. When I heard him recently in New York, he impressed me with his sense of sound, a specialty that jazz pianists often lack, and with his rejection of the unnecessary. ”This is the reason for the rather long pauses of Jamal, in which he is from one of the best bassist in the world of small combos, Israel Crosby, will be worn completely. Vernell Fournier's drums are basically a filler that rarely adds more to the beat than the bass. Jamal is not just about what he brings in, believes the author, to experience what he leaves out. As an example on the album, he cites the opening chorus of "Cheek to Cheek"; Jamal's use of block chords à la Milt Buckner is effective, if surprising. Of particular note is “Squatty Roo” (a 1941 song by Johnny Hodges), an unlikely recording for a pianist where the power of repetition is the climax of his interpretation.
Ahmad Jamal's album Volume IV made it into the American pop charts (# 11). In 1959 he hit the pop charts again with Jamal at the Penthouse '59 (# 32).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ahmad Jamal Discography
- ↑ The Ahmad Jamal Trio - Volume IV entry at Discogs
- ^ Review of Scott Yanow's album on Allmusic . Retrieved December 12, 2019.
- ↑ a b Gerald Lascelles: JJ 11/59: Ahmad Jamal Trio - Volume IV.Jazz Journal, November 30, 2019, accessed on December 12, 2019 (English).
- ↑ Donald Clarke (Ed.) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music Penguin Books, 1998, p. 629