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Welcome The Morning With Ahmad Jamal’s The Awakening
A notable personal example is the aptly titled track "The Awakening," which begins The Ahmad Jamal Trio's album of the same name. Beginning with its highly recognizable, compact, four-note melodic-cell introduction, the piece greets the listener with a motif that feels immediately familiar and clings tenaciously, creating an auditory activation that evolves into an enduring mental soundtrack.
Clocking in at six minutes and nineteen seconds, "The Awakening" is written in a standard 4/4 time signature (so-called common time) but there is nothing common about this composition nor its performance. Thematically, the track shifts reflexively and reflectively from dark to light with aplomb in both its expressive fluidity and technical mastery. This vibrant, quintessential example modal jazz, showcases Ahmad Jamal's horizontal thinking—creating opportunities for improvisation along sustained scales—as he embraces an economy of space and stillness and architects atmospheric minor-key harmonies, all while demonstrating his piano virtuosity.
In addition to Jamal, the trio includes Jamil Sulieman Nasser (bass) and Frank Gant (drums), with each musician contributing in a precisely balanced way. Nasser lays a bedrock-solid foundation upon which the trio builds, and Gant's exquisite cymbal work controls the pace, dynamics, and rhythmic shifts that enable a cohesive conversation among these musicians from the first note to the final fade.
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