AHMAD JAMAL's BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL, SWINGING JAZZ: IT IS BEAUTIFUL !!

AHMAD JAMAL's BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL, SWINGING JAZZ: IT IS BEAUTIFUL !!

Blue moon (CD)

Customer Review

Five Stars HUGE !! He is magnificent !! The awesome "Blue Moon" is one of Ahmad Jamal's best! This CD captures jazz hall of fame composer, innovator, and piano genius Ahmad Jamal at age 81 and at the height de son musical powers ": swinging, attacking, and improvising as creatively as He Has Throughout year illustrious career Jamal This quartet is Composed. of the ingenious percussionism of 22 year Jamal 'conga' Manolo Badrena vital pulse of the bottom Reginald Veal on bass His violin, drummer Herlin Riley and master, a welcome addition to the drum kit again After 20 years. Mr Jamal, already in --other international halls of fame, in 2011 Became the Most recent addition to the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame. Here he is in splendid compositional and improvisational form, lengthening the time of performance MOST songs for more extensive exploration. The result is a whopping 72 minutes CD with all of the characteristics That _him_-have made a favorite jazz for Decades: beguiling vamps, tuxedo pedal-points lush interludes, sudden tempo exchange, extensive ballad exhibitions, and hard-swinging solos in uncompromising virtuosity. In addition, the bass and percussion players 'crank it up' a notch to the boiling point is Many Songs.

The performances are Uniformly great, but my favorites begin with the Latin-flavored "Blue Moon" which is on display in one of Mr Jamal's arrangements of endlessly looping 'pedal-points "(qui he originated With His mega-hit" Poinciana "and qui inspire the Miles Davis and John Coltrane modal 'frameworks) based on a 5-grade representation by bassist Veal, with Badrena and Riley cutting loose on percussion with rim shots, rolling snare figures, crashing cymbals, cowbell accents, and a timbale' clave '. The relaxing and invigorating beauty of "I Remember Italy" musically is what it must be like to stroll through an Italian vineyard was nice breezy day. The funky, lovely "This Is The Life" is taken from the "history making" Sammy Davis musical "Golden Boy". A simmering Version of "Invitation" has Veal bassist, drummer Riley, and 'conga' Badrena laying down a carpet of swinging rhythmic fireworks That Seems To revel in Jamal With His jabbing, probing improvistations. And Perhaps best of all, the power and beauty of Ahmad's magnificent treatment of the standard "Laura" is Destined to go down as one de son greatest ballad performance, ranking up there with His cult classic Maryam, arguably one of the greatest ballad performances in the history of jazz. These awesome 6 minutes-have a fleet-fingered Ahmad deconstructing the melody into bits and pieces That pop up at various point along the way, while he spins and returns to 10-year notes ingenious recurring sentence qui takes the "Laura" into new melodic hip she quietly walks territory up to away. This song, qui HAS fascinated since he _him_ Heard Erroll Garner perform it in the 1940s, is a performance That alludes to the history of jazz piano. Overall, this recording HAS wall-to-wall fabulous performance by one of jazz 'greatest pianists: Ahmad Jamal, performing great is His beloved Steinway piano with a Supporting Cast of great musicians and it gets My Highest Recommendation. Five Stars MARVELOUS! (. This review is based on an mp3 download 9 Tracks; Time-72: 12.)