It's Magic (Ahmad Jamal Album)

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It's magic
Studio album by Ahmad Jamal

Publication
(s)

2008

Label (s) Dreyfus Records

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

9

running time

53:52

occupation

production

Ahmad Jamal, Francine Deiber-Massart, Francis Dreyfus

Studio (s)

Strasbourg

It's Magic is a jazz album released in 2008 by Ahmad Jamal .

The album

Ahmad Jamal and James Cammack

The album was recorded between November 25th and 28th, 2007 in Strasbourg . In addition to Jamal, his longtime bassist James Cammack and Idris Muhammad play drums. The trio was reinforced by the Latin percussionist Manolo Badrena.

The album contains six compositions by Jamal, including Back to the Island with references to calypso sounds and the exotic Arabesque . Jamal often uses quotes from other songs in the middle of his own pieces, such as Eleanor Rigby from the Beatles in the album's opening track.

Track list

All pieces by Ahmad Jamal, unless otherwise noted

  1. Dynamo - 4:06
  2. Swahililand - 3:59
  3. Back to the Island - 5:53
  4. It's Magic ( Sammy Cahn / Jule Styne ) - 4:57
  5. Wild Is the Wind / Sing (Joe Raposo / Ned Washington ) - 9:12
  6. The Way You Look Tonight ( Dorothy Fields / Jerome Kern ) - 3:16
  7. Arabesque - 7:30
  8. Papillon - 6:27
  9. Fitnah - 8:33

reception

Ian Patterson wrote on Allaboutjazz :

"The tremendous energy, finesse and sheer originality present in It's Magic, which has characterized much of Jamal's music this last decade in particular, is evidence that there is plenty of life in the old dog yet."

"The tremendous energy, finesse and sheer originality in It's Magic , which has shaped much of Jamal's music, especially in this last decade, is proof that there is still a lot of life in the old dog."

Ken Dryden rated the album four out of five stars on Allmusic and said:

"Even though Ahmad Jamal can sometimes rely a bit too heavily on song quotes, jazz piano fans will enjoy this release."

"Although Ahmad Jamal sometimes relies a little too much on song quotes, jazz piano fans will enjoy this release."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ahmad Jamal: It's Magic (2008), at Allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved September 13, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Ahmad Jamal - It's Magic, at Allmusic.com. Retrieved September 13, 2013 .

Web links