Ahmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1964) and (1965-1966)

Let's entertain the undisputed truth that Ahmad Jamal, all ninety-two years of him, is quite possibly the coolest cat on a warming planet and these companion double sets Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1964), and Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1965-1966) take on a rather folklorish, must-have status.

With the blessing of His Coolness Jamal himself, Grammy-nominated producer and musical gumshoe Zev Feldman christens his new imprint, Jazz Detective, (itself a division of the Feldman-founded Deep Digs Music Group) in high, high fashion he has set as a standard with other crazy good releases by Cannonball Adderley Swingin' In Seattle Live At The Penthouse 1966-67 (Reel to Reel Recordings, 2019) and Bill Evans Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forest (Resonance Records,2016) just to name two of many.

Stunning on every possible sensory level—audio, graphics, liner notes, performance—both sets (a third set of recordings from the Penthouse, 1966-1968 is planed for future release) simultaneously captures Jamal and his cohorts in hot performance mode and sets them free to be heard like all greats should be: At the top of their game. Riding the frothy crest of the jazz world at the time, Jamal, along with bassist Richard Evans and drummer Chuck Lampkin (Disc 1-2 '63) and bassist Jamil Sulieman Nasser (Disc 3-4 '63) set the fires burning early. Rodgers & Hart's show tune "Johnny One Note" gets a fierce recalculation as Jamal creates off the cuff, on the spot, in synch to a whole other rascal level of show tune. This here is what live jazz, on any given moment of any night in any city or backwater, is and should be. Genius revealed. Genius shared.

Evans's romping, "Minor Adjustments" rolls from the stage with a spry and wiry minimalism too impossible (or too improbable) to describe. Let's just say cool abounds. Cool abides and Johnny Hodges's wild ranging "Squatty Roo" is a fast-paced testament to that. Evans' "Bogota" with Nassar on bass for this 3/26/64 gig, snaps and recoils making for a swaying, rhythmic adventure. Jamal throughout pulls from Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, as well as his contemporary Ramsey Lewis, whose insights into Jamal and the times they played accentuates the beautiful packaging, as do essays and analysis by Hiromi, Kenny Barron, Jon Batiste, Marshall Chess , Penthouse broadcast engineer Jim Wilke, Feldman, Aaron Diehl and others in the know.

Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1965-1966) kicks off with another Rodgers/Hart show tune, "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and the tune's inherent whimsy, when fused with Jamal's eccentric economy and the crackling pace of Nasser and Lampkin just skyrockets and ricochets from one end of the Penthouse to another. Hold tight as drummer Vernel Fournier engages in some playful wrangling to wrest control from Jamal on the pianist's own "Concern." Frank Gant picks up the drums and sets that soul/exotic hit single pace of "Poinciana," assuring Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1965-1966) is indeed as worthy and exciting a set as the earlier 63-64 set and promises greater heights for all future releases.

Tracks and Personnel

Emerald City Nights: 1963-1964

Tracks: CD 1: Johnny One Note; Minor Adjustments; All Of You; Squatty Roo. CD 2: Bogata; Lollipops And Roses; Tangerine; Keep On Keeping On; Minor Moods; But Not For Me.

Personnel: Ahmad Jamal: piano; Jamil Nasser: bass; Chuck Lampkin: drums; Richard Evans: bass (CD 1).

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