The Ahmad Jamal Trio
The Awakening

Hello guys, Contemplazione's computer broke down. He sent me this page via fax, which I am posting on His behalf, although, mistakenly, Il_Paolo's name appears on the Debaser front, not responsible for what is written here to follow.

«Ahmad Jamal, reclusive artist from Pittsburgh, never gained much notoriety outside the tight circle of jazz music aficionados, but he can count among his biggest admirers that Miles Davis who declared himself inspired by certain insights of the pianist to revisit his music in a modal key. Like Davis, Jamal is a versatile, fragmented, and expressive musician in the early '50s, whirlwind-like in the '60s, close to afro and funk sounds in the '70s, returning to the channel of tradition and greater formal rigor starting from the early '80s, in doing so distancing himself from the unending but not always happy explorations of the trumpeter from St. Louis.

"The Awakening" ('70) is, in my opinion, one of Jamal's best albums (here in a trio with bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Frank Gant), where technical skill and musical exploration unite with elegance and balance, giving us a sophisticated product, and at the same time, extremely accessible even for those not familiar with jazz.

All compositions revolve around the sounds of Jamal's piano, where rhythmic accents and harmonic openings in predominantly major tones are often counterpointed by fugues and improvisations, with a blend of styles that perhaps makes assimilating this album to one genre restrictive.

This is music that goes beyond the narrow confines of styles and expressive canons, offering an idea of creative and executive freedom, without yielding technique at the expense of the expressiveness of the tracks and the ability to communicate. In this, Jamal's music comes close to that of the best Jarrett, merging classical composure with accents derived directly from African American music (return of themes, scales where blues echoes are heard), reinterpreted with a lightness of touch and an airy, fleeting approach that is typical of the best jazz.

In such a context, the role of bassist and drummer does not appear, however, secondary or supportive, as the accompanying instruments contribute to defining the mood, atmospheres, and progression of each track: as often occurs in jazz following the Davisian revolution, it is not about how many notes, how many phrases, how many technically articulated passages the rhythmic instruments perform, but it almost matters more the alternation between silences and interventions, giving expressiveness to the silence and the absence of the rhythm section before its entrance and the development of its progression.

The result of this compositional and expressive tension is summarized in "The Awakening" without interruptions, making it difficult, and ultimately pointless, to describe track by track the moods and sensations of the album, characterized by a unified inspiration where each piece seems to be the variation, the reinterpretation, the evolution of the themes of the other.

However, I like to remember the initial, eponymous "The Awakening" where Jamal's sound takes on now solid, earthy characteristics in the sequences of chords introducing the main theme of the piece, becoming now liquid, now airy, in the excursions and deconstructions of the theme made in the central part of the piece, until the forceful re-emergence of the central theme and the concreteness of the music.

More rarefied atmospheres are captured, instead, in the subsequent "I Love Music", where Jamal opens with no rhythmic accompaniment, with romantic accents owing to the pianist's classical training, progressing in a gradual crescendo until the entrance of bass and drums determines an almost colloquial evolution of the track, characterized by that typical barroom chatter of a Hopper painting, that define the very essence, the etymology, of jazz.

I willingly stop here, leaving you the pleasure of gradually discovering this work and this ever-changing trio and the moods of its music, varied, changing, and mutable as only vintage jazz can be».

Really nice this review from our Contempla. Personally, I also purchased this album, on the recommendation of our Expert, appreciating its characteristics and sounds, which, at times, recall Stelvio Cipriani and Fausto Papetti, especially due to the absence of a lead singer or instruments like the guitar and the electric bass. Strange then that jazz drummers only use the cymbals (I'll ask the experts for clarifications). However, it is not music I would recommend for your car stereo, as, as is known, listening to jazz can produce a relaxation fatal to your reflexes.

As Contemplazione himself would tell you, it's better to listen to this music on your own wicker chair, enjoying the May breezes, perhaps sipping a good port in front of a sunset that unveils the historical ruins of your city or traces expressionistic lines on the paths of your neighbors.

Ancillary Yours,

Il_Paolo