Jazz Police - The Legend Returns - Ahmad Jamal at the Dakota, February 21-23

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Stan Getz “There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.” - Stan Getz

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Saturday, 20 March 2010

The Legend Returns - Ahmad Jamal at the Dakota, February 21-23

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Sunday, 21 February 2010

"The true test of a musician, or any artist for that matter, is he compels your attention. Jamal makes you sit forward because you want to hear what comes next" (Matt Schudel, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel).

Ahmad Jamal © Andrea Canter

Of the living legends of jazz piano, perhaps none has exerted such wide influence on the genre as Ahmad Jamal. Nearing 80, Jamal has been cited as a key muse by pianists as diverse as McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, and Mulgrew Miller; echoes of Jamal can be found in the playing of a younger generation, including Eric Reed and Jacky Terrasson; and trumpet legend Miles Davis was so impressed with Jamal's approach that he repeatedly sought pianists who could incorporate that sound in his early bands. Wrote Stanley Crouch in the Village Voice, "No musician has had a more profound effect on the orchestral approach to small groups in the last 35 years than Ahmad Jamal...He showed people how to italicize and magnify elements of music that were taken for granted, how to organize the sound of a group around the drums, and how to interchange the riff with the ostinato or the vamp...He is a virtuoso, but his innovations are found in his arrangements....". With long-standing partner James Cammack on bass and the return of former trio cohort Herlin Riley on drums, Jamal will present three nights of ear-bending, brain-tingling, heart-stopping piano jazz—or as he prefers to call it, "American Classical Music," at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis, February 21-23. No doubt some compositions from his new release, A Quiet Time, will be on the agenda.

As a child prodigy growing up in Pittsburgh, young Ahmad Jamal began playing piano at age three, started serious studies with Mary Caldwell Dawson at age 7, was playing Liszt etudes in competition by age 11, and joined the musicians' union at 14. He developed a large repertoire by studying the sheet music provided by an aunt, and began playing around town with much older musicians, impressing Art Tatum as a "coming great." Never inclined to separate jazz from classical forms ("We considered Art Tatum a study, just like Bach or Beethoven"), Jamal's early influences included the big bands and orchestras of the era-- Fritz Reiner conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony, the great bands of Ellington, Hines, and Basie at the Savoy, and, later, the trios of Tatum, Garner, and Cole. He particularly cites Errol Garner's two-handed approach to the piano and the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel.

At 17, Jamal married, setting aside plans to attend Julliard, and embarked on a fulltime career as a musician. With a group called The Four Strings, then The Three Strings, the Ahmad Jamal trio evolved, first with bass and guitar, and later in the current piano, bass, and drum format. "Trying to follow in the footsteps of Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Bud Powell,'' as he said in an interview 30 years later, Jamal worked as a sideman in Chicago before forming his landmark trio with Israel Crosby and the great New Orleans drummer, Vernel Fournier, in the early 1950s.

Ahmad and James Cammack © Andrea Canter

As artist in residence at Chicago’s Embers, Jamal gained recognition playing to audiences that included top-line performers of the day, including Billie Holiday. He was soon signed to OKeh Records by producer John Hammond. The release of But Not for Me, recorded at the Pershing Lounge in Chicago in 1958 and including Jamal's famous arrangement of ''Poinciana,'' was on the Billboard charts for an incredible two years—unheard of in jazz; it was the first jazz recording to sell one million copies. While its popularity reflected the music's accessibility, this was also a source of criticism: Noted Ben Waltzer (New York Times), "Jamal's avoidance of bebop pyrotechnics and dissonant harmonies, his stealthy dynamics, and the pop veneer of certain arrangements led some critics to dismiss him as an effete cocktail pianist, chic and shallow."

Yet, his orchestral treatment of the jazz trio, which elevated the bass and drum to play key roles in the whole, would be the hallmark of Ahmad Jamal’s music, and the ingredients that caught the ear of trumpet legend Miles Davis, who said, ''All my inspiration today comes from Ahmad Jamal.'' Davis went on to record some of Jamal’s compositions and incorporated Jamal tunes into his own repertoire, and would send his own bandmates (particularly Red Garland) to hear Jamal, seeking to incorporate this unique sound into their arrangements. Wrote Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune, “Jamal reveled in defying conventional approaches to the keyboard...the pianist manages to bring coherence to improvisations that shift constantly between swing rhythm and meterless playing, between single-note riffs and extended parallel chords in both hands.”

Over the years, Jamal continued to focus primarily on the trio format, occasionally exploring the electric piano and continually evolving his unique approach to space, dynamics, tension and release, the use of pedal tones, and superimposed chords that reflect the early influence of Ravel. Key recordings for Atlantic reinvigorated his reputation in the 1980s--Digital Works, Crystal, Pittsburg, Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival, and Rossiter Road. As his playing gained confidence over the years, his music developed greater spontaneity and complexity. "Jamal's colorful harmonic perception has been too often overlooked. He characteristically builds parallel and contrary motion lines that move in and out of chordal substitutions and alterations that would probably frighten pianists of less harmonic sensitivity... Jamal has brought the bass and drums into an independent but highly functional role in his conception of the piano trio" (Don Heckman, L.A. Times).

At times criticized or merely overlooked for his subtle and planful executions, Jamal's more recent performances and recordings have reflected a new-found spontaneity that "has completely integrated the lithe lyricism of old with the muscular passion of new" (Fred Kaplan). Wrote Ben Waltzer in the New York Times, "Where in his early work drama builds slowly and subtly, Mr. Jamal now follows whispers with primal screams. His playing has become utterly uninhibited, suffused with a kind of contagious joy whose emotional commitment makes nearly anything the band does work."

Herlin Riley © Todd Smith

Ahmad Jamal's music has been heard on the soundtracks to several popular films: In 1970, Jamal performed Johnny Mandel's title track for the big hit MASH, and two tracks from But Not For Me ("Music, Music, Music" and "Poinciana") were featured in Clint Eastwood's popular 1995 film, The Bridges of Madison County. Generally underappreciated, Jamal received the 1994 American Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and was named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University, where he performed commissioned works with the Assai String Quartet. In March 2007, he received the Living Legend Award at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Also in 2007, Jamal was awarded the prestigious Officier de L'Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres of France.

Listening to Jamal and his trio or quartet is like listening to a full orchestra; he covers a large sonic palette of complex harmonies and widespread dynamics, captured on numerous recordings throughout his career on Epic, Argo, Impulse, Atlantic, Verve, Telarc, Birdology and most recently on Dreyfus. On 2003's In Search of Momentum, the pianist "made some of his most inspired trio jazz in years" (Ted Panken, DownBeat). With the 2005 release of After Fajr, “Ahmad Jamal continues to offer an uncompromising approach to his music with tasteful chord voicings, complex rhythmic tools, and with this recording - impressive vocal arrangements. His choice of repertoire continues to make him one of the most revered pianists on the international music scene” (Amazon.com). The 2008 release, It's Magic, featured six originals, two of which have never been recorded, and three standards. In late 2009, Jamal released a magical follow-up, A Quiet Time. Noted critic Jim Macnie (Downbeat), "...these days everything about his playing is a bit sharper, a touch more vivid, a smidge more fanciful. A Quiet Time is filled with audacious maneuvers. Frequent tempo changes, sudden melody switcheroos and unexpected flourishes are the norm."

Ahmad Jamal's current touring trio includes a longtime partner and the return of a past collaborator. Regarding bassist James Cammack, Jamal notes that "If he is still with me for so long, it is because he has exceptional ears. He is an extension of my left arm." Cammack has been playing with Jamal for nearly 30 years. Along the way he has also toured with Nancy Wilson, Howard Johnson and Vanessa Rubin. A native of New Orleans, Herlin Riley has been playing drums since age 3. A member of Jamal's trio from 1984-87, he also played with Marcus Roberts, Dr. John, George Benson and Wynton Marsalis, and has long been associated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Notes fellow pianist Harold Mabern, "Every time I hear Ahmad, I leave inspired. He plays a three-chord masterpiece before he even sits down on the stool... It's his sound, his knowledge of chords, the way he orchestrates from the bottom of the piano to the top." Such inspiration awaits us in Minneapolis.

"It's always exciting for me to sit down at the piano, and every time I do, something new happens, something surprises me, or I surprise myself...That's the reason there's no such thing as old music. The wonderful thing about music is that it's ageless."--Ahmad Jamal

The Dakota is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis; reservations at www.dakotacooks.com; two sets each night, February 21-23.

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