Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad's Blues

The good old Miles understood well that the pianist Ahmad Jamal is a genius. At the time of the first historic quintet, he pointed him out as an example to his fellow musicians, especially to Red Garland. Without Jamal's music, the classic "Kind of Blue" surely wouldn't have existed.

Musical alchemies in the name of minimalism, but what minimalism! The secret lies entirely in his way of expanding and stretching the time of each phrase. The music breathes like the bellows of an accordion, swelling and suddenly releasing. Few little notes here and there, but just in the right place so that the silences rearrange, organize, and become music. Sometimes I get the impression that Jamal plays the piano with the attitude of a percussionist.

This album is a live recording from 1958, with Israel Crosby on double bass and Vernel Fournier on percussion. There are only two compositions by Jamal, "Ahmad's Blues" and "Seleritus", the rest is a repertoire of standards. However, the interpretations of these pieces are completely unconventional. For example, the classic "Autumn Leaves", from a nostalgic French song, becomes a kind of blues fugue, the melody disappears and re-emerges reflected in a thousand mirrors. Other significant pieces: "Stompin' at the Savoy", "Cheek to Cheek", "Let's Fall in Love", "Autumn in New York", "A Gal in Calico".

The blues filtered by Jamal becomes something profoundly different, it turns into a tightrope dance, a whirlwind of whispered small notes, with the silences in between that howl. The melody decomposes like the image of a cubist painting, you feel like you've lost it for a moment, but after a second you discover it's still there. Extreme economy of sound, you can feel that every nuance is important, our Jamal says nothing superfluous, he's not a big talker.

With his early works, we are faced with one of the subtlest influences on jazz to come, naturally filtered through the Miles Davis quintet but no less important for that. I think that sometimes it's good to return directly to the source. Besides, the album is very pleasant; with its grace revealed to the simple, I think it will appeal even to those who usually don't listen to jazz.