Chamber Music of the New Jazz (Reis) (Dig) [Original recording remastered]

Ahmad Jamal | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 14, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Grp Records
• ASIN: B0002LGWQI
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,779 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #93 in Music > Jazz > Orchestral Jazz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's Ahmad..., January 12, 2006

By 

Juno Hopsker "Breigh" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chamber Music of the New Jazz (Reis) (Dig) (Audio CD)

Well, if you are not a jazz fan, stop reading...For you jazz lovers, this album is a taste of the creation of the modern trio. Although back then trio's were not always b/d/p, this is a classic trio. Ahmad has inspired monsters such as Jarrett and Mehldau, with his classic, smooth playing. This album sounds really old, but the classics never get old to me...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars just GREAT listening, November 1, 2006

By 

Francis P. Bennett ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chamber Music of the New Jazz (Reis) (Dig) (Audio CD)

this is wonderful listening .. the selections, the way they are arranged .. the sounds .. WOW what a treat !!!
I started with one 33 1/3 lp years ago and after listening to it again some time ago decided I wanted more of the works of this great musician and so have started collecting other works by him.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have, June 23, 2009

By 

Edward Abbott "American Audiophile" (Stuart, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chamber Music of the New Jazz (Reis) (Dig) (Audio CD)

At this point Jamal is just starting his musical career. He has been recording for four years and is now only twenty-five years old. He is highly regarded by fellow musicians, like Dave Brubeck, and has the same agent as Louis Armstrong.

He has played in many of America's finest night clubs, from coast to coast, including our own Blue Note. Talking with Jamal on the eve of his recent departure for Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and then New York, one had the impression of talking to a large child, yet to someone far beyond simple innocence. At times he seems at once young and a century old. Soft-spoken, grave, calm, and ascetic who does not even smoke. He still has something of the elegant and precious about him that is not at all puritanical -- he talks with a light humor,but keeps about him quiet dignity and strength most impressive in this age which counts so heavily on the spectacular. His personality is reflected in his music, which in its clarity, calm and subtle joy, deserves to be called the chamber of contemporary jazz.

Track Listing:

New Rumba
Foggy Day
All Of You
It Ain't Necessarily So
I Get A Kick Out Of You
Jeff
Darn That Dream
Spring Is Here

The Trio:

Ahmad Jamal - Piano
Israel Crosby - Bass
Ray Crawford - Guitar

Review:

This album is unusual in two ways. Because pianist Ahmad Jamal would soon become famous for his piano/bass/drums trios, it is often forgotten that, up until 1956, his group consisted of bassist Israel Crosby and guitarist Ray Crawford. Crawford's percussive hitting of his guitar would soon be utilized by Herb Ellis in Oscar Peterson's Trio.

And, although it is known that Miles Davis listened closely to Jamal and often "borrowed" his repertoire, few probably realize that Gil Evans based some of his famous arrangements on Jamal's interpretations.

A comparison of "New Rumba" and "Medley" (which is really "I Don't Want To Be Kissed") on this album with Evans' version for Miles Ahead in 1957 sounds nearly identical despite the very different personnel. It is a pity that Jamal would soon change his group's instrumentation since his communication with Crawford and Crosby (heard here on such tunes as "A Foggy Day," "All of You," "I Get a Kick out of You" and "Spring Is Here") was often magical, but he would soon gain great popularity with the upcoming guitarless trio (which was just as telepathic).

If we stress the delicacy of Jamal's style, we do not mean that this quality is absent from his contemporaries, they all have it in varying degrees, but no one has pushed the quiet tone to its limit as he has done, for example, in the opening strains of his PERFIDIA, or WILL YOU STILL BE MINE, and his records on Okeh, which made him famous. His recent releases on Argo seem to point to a second Jamal phase, a new development of thequietly rhythmic. In passing it might be said that his first LP has one side superior to the other, the one with I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU, JEFF, DARN THAT DREAM.

In this accent on the delicate beat Jamal is as different from his contemporaries as a Mozart trio is from Beethoven's ninth symphony. In introducing the light lyric, one might almost say the "pastoral" tone, into the new jazz Jamal has found a style as original as any of his contemporaries. The predominance of the high register, played softly but with great rhythm, and in simple swing patterns without a great deal of chording and fireworks, is probably the leading formal aspect of his style. His combo, whose most noticeable feature is a guitar doubling for a high-pitched bongo effect, also has a distiner style. This bongo effect is very successful. At its best, it is like listening to a bubbling brook on a jazz kick.

In addition to the new style there is a great mood in Jamal. His contemporaries are spectacular and complicated in comparison to the quiet joy, the fairylike simplicity and ease of this young pianist. In his tremulous lyrics we find something of a friendly child, something natural and clear. This music, however, is not cheaply relaxing. Its simple beauty is born of a tender sadness, the wonderment of a lost child in short, this music has that rarest form of vibrancy and joy, the kind that knows of tragedy.

End Review:

Ahmad Jamals "Chamber Music For The New Jazz" remains one of the most technically brillant works recorded. And to think he was 25 when he recorded this, just boggles the mind. This album has that desert island status about it, just to good to leave behind.

A solid find for a serious jazz library. If this is not cataloged in your library here is that rare opportunity to acquire.