Ahmad Jamal 8 Classic Albums Part 1

If ever there is a trio to study it's the incarnations of Ahmad Jamal's from the late 1950s through the early 1960s. Aside from the rich set of examples of both dynamics and space, most of those trio line-ups included Israel Crosby on bass and Vernel Fournier on drums.

Those two, of all of the bassists and drummers I can think of, perfectly complement Jamal's musical vision. I can think of only two other pairings that would have worked with Jamal: Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, and Percy Heath and Connie Kay. Things have a habit of working out, though, because Brown and Thigpen went on to add their magic to the Oscar Peterson Trio, while Heath and Kay were instrumental in making the Modern Jazz Quartet a seminal ensemble (and probably the closest musically to Jamal's trios.)

In this, and Parts 2 and 3, I am going to discuss a treasure trove of Jamal's earlier recordings: Ahmad Jamal: Eight Classic Albums.

Albums In The Set

Chamber Music of the New Jazz.

This 1955 album is similar in ensemble composition to the early Oscar Peterson Trio format: bass and guitar. The bassist is the venerable Israel Crosby, who has always been my favorite Ahmad Jamal bassist, and Ray Crawford on guitar. The percussion is Crawford playing off his guitar. Here is a clip from the album:

Count 'Em 88.

This 1956 album has Crosby on bass, who is joined by Walter Perkins on drums. Perkins plays with the same rhythmic subtly and dynamics as Vernel Fournier would when he became the mainstay drummer in the trio. I cannot recall any musician with whom Jamal collaborated that did not fit the musical approach of the musicians on this album. Here is a clip from this album:

Live at the Spotlite.

Actually the album, Live at the Spotlite Cafe is out of print, although the one linked to above (and the album cover) contains all of of the tracks on that album plus half again as many. This is from 1958 at the Spotlite Cafe in Washington, DC, with Crosby and Founrier backing Jamal. Here is a track from that album:

Continued in the next post. Enjoy.

The Shape of Jazz to Come

The final album in the 1959 - The Year That Changed Jazz is Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come.

A good starting point for learning about and understanding this game changing album is C. Michael Bailey's excellent article, Reassessing Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come. Bailey does an excellent job of analyzing the album. He also compares and contrasts what Coleman was doing with what Miles Davis was going on Kind of Blue. Both deemphasized chords. Davis opted for using a scalar structure, whereas Coleman dispensed with even that. Indeed, the piano - a mainstay chordal instrument in jazz - is not even employed on the album. That in itself was a radical move for 1959. Moreover, the music had no discernible chord structure (although chords were certainly played).

The following clip from 1059 - The Year That Changed Jazz does an excellent job of explaining the musical approach (and the reaction):

Here are a few tracks from the album to reinforce my thoughts and those of others to which I have linked. To get the most from these remember what Coleman was attempting to do - provide a musical structure based on head-solo-head (melody, free improvision by all members of the ensemble, and a return to the melody) without any chord structure. Remember, not having a chord structure does not mean chords are not used - they are, but the music is not structurally dependent upon them. Also, listen to these tracks more than a few times. You will hear something new each time you listen. I will admit that Coleman's approach to music is vastly different than mine, but this album is extraordinary in every sense of the word.

This concludes my series about 1959 - The Year That Changed Jazz, and the four albums that were instrumental in making that a golden year. Note: some people consider John Coltrane's Giant Steps to be the fifth album from 1959, but I disagree. It was certainly game changing, and was recorded in 1959, but was not released until 1960.

My next posts will discuss some excellent work by Ahmad Jamal.

Ah Um by Charles Mingus

The third (of four) 1959 albums that changed jazz is Charles Mingus' masterpiece: Ah Um.

Where Time Out broke the 4/4 time signature barrier, Kind of Blue based the harmonic framework on modes instead of chord progressions, and The Shape of Jazz to Come dispensed with chordal instruments altogether while also deemphasizing the melody, Ah Um paid homage to the roots of jazz and key musicians. As importantly, it made a political statement with Fables of Faubus (do read Marc Myers' excellent article about that song.)

By 1959 jazz had fallen from favor as a popular genre, due in no small part to bebop and the hard bop movement that followed. Bebop was undanceable, highly technical and was an acquired taste for those who were more rooted in swing and big band music. Art Blakey and Horace Silver's hard bop movement attempted to bring bebop closed to its blues and swing roots, but it was still undanceable.

From three of the four albums that changed jazz it is apparent that jazz was once again changing in 1959, retrogressing in many ways to the same flaws that plagued bebop. For the record I love bebop, but I am a musician who can find happiness in digging through the technical underpinnings of its complexity and requirement for virtuoso playing skills. I also don't dance. Ah Um was different. For one thing you could dance to most of the tracks.

To illuminate the true essence of this album I am going to use a quote from Sean Murphys Mingus Ah Um: An Open Letter to the 20th Century

Mingus was as generous in celebrating the musicians who inspired him as he was ardent in discovering them. One of the most special aspects of Mingus Ah Um is the way it functions as a sort of encyclopedia of the best jazz music recorded to that point. Special tributes are offered up to Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Jelly Roll Morton, and, of course, Duke Ellington.

Murphy placed the album into context, but the best analysis I have come across is Charles Mingus - Ah Um from a blog called All Jazz Cafe that contains a wealth of other articles on jazz.

Charlie Parker once said that Music speaks louder than words, so here are a few clips from the album:

For the details about who is on which track, where it was recorded, etc. see this page.

Charles Mingus remains an important musician and inspiration to me. In future posts I will dig deeper into his music, as was as Mingus the man. Just for fun (and to provide insights into a single aspect of a complex, talented and even tortured genius), I'll leave you with this short story in one act play. For a more serious look, see this paper.

If you don't have Ah Um I recommend Ah Um 50th Anniversary Legacy Edition that also includes Mingus Dynasty (see my review), or an even better deal, Mingus: Three Classic Albums, which includes the first two plus Blues and Roots. If you like those, complete the set with Oh Yeah.

In my next (and final post in this series) I will discuss the fourth 1959 album, The Shape of Jazz to Come. Enjoy.