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Ahmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse
ByJamal has been a creature of habit, playing with the same musicians for many years and often adhering to a repertoire dominated by standards. However, he has imprinted his unique style of playing even on the most worn-out pieces. Emerald City Nights finds the young Jamal at the peak of his inventiveness in these two volumes of live performances at the Seattle venue. His classically-infused, hard bop "Johnny One Note" shows him to be anything but stuck on a singular approach. On "Minor Adjustments" and "Bogota" Jamal's fluctuating and weighty playing, combined with Mach 1 speed and European touches, are thoroughly invigorating. He displays his most inventive stylings on "Tangerine" and the mid-tempo "Minor Moods." Throughout Emerald City Nights, Jamal has solid support from bassists Richard Evans and Jamil Sulieman Nasser and drummers Chuck Lampkin, Vernel Fournier, and Frank Gant.
The hyperbolic jazz advocate Stanley Crouch once asked if Sonny Rollins was "washed up or simply studio averse." It was an extreme assumption but the premise is valid and it is fair to ponder whether Ahmad Jamal was less ambitious off-stage. His studio recordings demonstrated little growth in technique across five decades of music. But Jamal's live recordings show a different side of the pianist and that has never been more clearly heard than on Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse. The limited edition double-LP will be issued in November 2022, followed by a two-CD set and digital release in December 2022. A third volume is expected in the future.
Track Listing
Side A: Johnny One Note; Minor Adjustments. Side B: All of You; Squatty Roo. Side C: Bogota; Lollipops & Roses; Tangerine. Side D: Keep On Keepin On; Minor Moods; But Not for Me.
Personnel
Ahmad Jamal
pianoRichard Evans
bassJamil Sulieman Nasser
bass, acousticChuck Lampkin
drumsVernel Fournier
drumsFrank Gant
drumsJail Nasser
bassAdditional Instrumentation
Richard Evans on CD 1; Jail Nasser on CD 2.
Album information
Title: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Jazz Detective
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