Jazz Articles about Ahmad Jamal

About Ahmad Jamal

Album Review

Four years between studio albums is a long gap by Ahmad Jamal's standards. Not that the 87-year-old pianist has been idle since the widely acclaimed Saturday Morning (Jazz Village, 2013). He's released two live albums in that time--Live at The Olympia (Jazz Village, 2014) featuring Yusef Lateef and Live in Marciac 2014 (Jazz Village, 2015)--and remains a major draw on the world's most prestigious jazz stages. Though Marseille bears many of Jamal's hallmarks--old songs reworked, standards, a ballad--the pianist still ...

Album Review

Ahmad Jamal: Marseille

Read "Marseille" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
May 28, 2017

There are few true jazz legends left alive now let alone still recording albums of the calibre of Marseille. Ahmad Jamal is one such venerable figure and the octogenarian (born July 2, 1930) has recorded an album of consistent brilliance. Jamal prefers to refer to his playing as American classical music rather than jazz and he's been regarded as a “mainstream" pianist but to stylistically stereotype him in this fashion is to do him an injustice. The title ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Piano Trio

by AAJ Staff
April 6, 2015

When one talks about “jazz piano music," it is almost taken for granted they are talking about jazz piano trio music. The trio is and has been most jazz pianists' favorite format, and with good reason: the jazz piano trio has been said at times to represent the essence of jazz in the most condensed yet effective way possible. A piano trio takes full advantage of swing, interaction, and dynamics. There have certainly been outstanding jazz piano trios ...

Album Review

Ahmad Jamal & Yusef Lateef: Live At The Olympia

Read "Live At The Olympia" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
August 20, 2014

Ahmad Jamal's live performances have been well represented in his discography over the past sixty years. Yet despite touring the globe, all Jamal's live recordings--with the exception of the DVD concert from Lebanon, Live at Baalbeck (Birdology, 2003)--document North American and European gigs. France has always accorded the Pittsburgh pianist a royal welcome, naming him an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007;the regard is mutual, as Live at the Olympia is Jamal's fourth live recording in ...

Album Review

Ahmad Jamal: Saturday Morning

Read "Saturday Morning" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
March 4, 2014

L'ottantatreenne Ahmad Jamal dispensa con questo nuovo CD l'ennesima lezione di piano jazz. Le undici tracce proposte ci restituiscono l'intatta voglia di comunicare gioiose note, che svettano leggere sul pentagramma come farfalle nel cielo stellato. La sua creativa cifra personale si impone a tutto tondo, passando con invadibile souplesse dallo swing ai solari percorsi funky. La magniloquente personalità del pianista emerge soprattutto nella rielaborazione degli standard. Magistrale è in tal senso la personale rilettura di “I'm in ...

Live Review

Ahmad Jamal at Vicar Street, Dublin

by Ian Patterson
February 2, 2014

Ahmad Jamal Vicar Street Dublin 24 January, 2014 It's been a banner year for fans of jazz piano in Dublin, with solo concerts by Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau bookending 2013. Influential to both these pianists was NEA Jazz Master Ahmad Jamal, so it was fitting in a way that he should give his first performance in Ireland in a dozen years so soon after two of the most important pianists of the past forty ...

Year in Review

Ian Patterson's Best Releases of 2013

by Ian Patterson
December 21, 2013

The following list represents my personal favorites of those CDs I reviewed this year. I am convinced that we live in a great age for jazz/creative music. You can only ever listen to a very small percentage of what's out there, but it's still a privilege to able to access this much terrific music. Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone and the London Vocal Project Mirrors (Edition Records) Yuhan Su Flying Alone