Ahmad Jamal Genetic Walk Zip
. ELECTRIC JAMAL.Steve Huey's of Ahmad Jamal at AMG contends that 'J amal's manipulations of space and silence, tension and release, and dynamics all broke new ground, and had an impact far beyond Jamal's favored piano trio format. As an arranger, Jamal made the most of his small-group settings by thinking of them in orchestral terms: using his trademark devices to create contrast and dramatic effect, and allowing the rhythm section a great deal of independence in its interplay.'
In the early 1970s, Jamal began to broaden this experimentation both instrumentally and stylistically, moving beyond the trio format to include actual orchestral textures, vocal choruses and electric instrumentation, including the incorporation of a fender rhodes.Like many jazz artists of the time who reached across the RnB and pop dividing walls and plugged in electric instruments, he faced a lot of flak from most jazz critics, many of whom continue to bypass or disparage this electric period.These 70s albums are worth a closer look, so let's check them out. 'Stolen moments' excerptJamal started the decade with in 1970. No electric keyboards here, but this acoustic piano trio album, some twenty years into his career, has the pianist wringing every edge of tonality from his instrument - he's creating denser textures than before, but simultaneously he's using silence and space to create drama as as alternately pounds and caresses the keys. It's as if he's reached some sort of epiphany as to the textures he can create with just one instrument at this time, and it's not surprising that he soon began to expand his instrumental palette.' Effendi' excerptFor a few tracks on his 1971 live trio album, recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival on June 17th of that year, Jamal establishes the main themes on acoustic piano then begins to solo on rhodes.
He's somewhat enamoured with the instrument's on-board tremelo/LFO (the 'pulsing' effect) and you can hear drummer Frank Gant setting complex snare drum patterns against the effect.The dense, mid-range clouds of rhodes chords allow space for bassist Jamil Suleiman Nasser to improvise in his upper range. Jamal returns to the piano for more percussive sections and theme reprisals.
The engineers are clearly not used to amplified instruments and are slightly 'off' the rhodes amp with their microphone placement.' Bogota' excerptReleased in 1972 but coming from the same 1971 Montreux concert, contains two long live tracks.
On the first of these, 'Bogota', Jamal's increasingly utilising the individual strengths of acoustic and electric piano to widen the overall dynamic range of his compositions.Three minutes into the track, he turns away from his acoustic piano and begins to create clouds of tremelo rhodes chords, alternating with fast solo blues runs. Six minutes later, the acoustic piano returns with a percussive attack, then as the dynamics soften, he returns to the rhodes again.Even as early as this concert, Jamal seems to have refined his 'orchestration' of the two instruments to fit into the subtlety of his compositional dynamics.' Superstition' excerptdownload: of 'Superstition'. Jamal's 1973 move from Impulse to 20th Century Records for the album was a radical step in many different ways. 'Handicapper' excerptThe cover of 1976's 'Steppin Out With a Dream' (links in comments) looks like Ahmad's taken a few snorts from Van McCoy's drug pouch before indulging in some art director's equestrian fantasy, and we've got a ripe candidate for Greg's new blog.Nonetheless, the music is really good - three small combo tracks with rhodes and acoustic piano: 'Handicapper', 'Tucson' and 'Crossfire' - and two piano standards with simple bass accompaniment: 'My One and Only Love' and 'Prelude to a Kiss'. 'Crossfire' excerptThe most significant new presence on this album is guitarist Calvin Keys, who'd released a few of his own albums on the Black Jazz label, such as 1971's 'Shawn-Neeq', and appeared on others by Gene Russell and Doug Carn.
Although he'd been buried on a few tracks on 'Genetic Walk', in this smaller lineup his Grant Green-style guitar lines are the perfect soul-jazz foil for Jamal's keyboards. It's a pity that there aren't too many albums featuring the two of them.Jamal produced the album himself, under supervision from Paul Gayten, a former New Orleans band leader who had turned to production.sample trainspotter's alert:Ahmad Jamal's been heavily sampled in hip hop - see the collections of originals-vs-flips in the miscellaneous section below. Anyway, the sample I noticed when listening to this album was the opening track 'Handicapper'. There's a few chords there that make up the body of a Marc Mac track called 'Atlanta Walking' on his beats-and-civil-rights album, which is worth checking out. I've also read that 'Crossfire' is sampled in Dilated People's 'Pay Attention'.
(album credits further down )'Bellows' excerptLater in 1976 Jamal recorded a live album with the same lineup,. Jamal's just on acoustic piano, apart from some brief rhodes comping behind Calvin Key's solo in 'Bellows', a track from 'Genetic Walk'.There's another version of McCoy Tyner's 'Effendi', an extended version of Jamal's best known song 'Poinciana', and an original called 'Folklore'. Once again it's great to hear the chemistry between Jamal and Calvin Keys, and Seldon Newton's conga work drives this one along quite differently from Jamal's earlier live albums.' Black Cow' excerpt(also on this blog) was recorded from May-July 1978, and has three producers: Richard Evans; ' arranger/keyboardist and (S.O.S Band) individually produce and arrange a large group that includes synthesisers (Melvoin), horn sections, vocal groups (Eloise Laws and others), and several percussionists (Paulinho da Costa, Bill Summers, Hal Blaine and others). My favourite track is a cover of Steely Dan's 'Black Cow', with girl chorus vocals and Jamal on the clavinet.
Not one for the jazz purists!' You're Welcome, Stop On By' excerpt'Boatride' excerptOn 1979's 'Intervals', now on this blog.
Jamal is still on rhodes and occasional synth on a few tracks, but clearly headed back towards smaller acoustic groups. Half the album's produced by Paul Gayten, the other half by 'Fifth Dimension' mastermind. AMG's Scott Yanow, which for some of us counts as a recommendation. Other tracks are 'Jordie', 'So in Love', 'Reggae', 'The Tube' and 'Bones'. This was Jamal's last release for 20th Century Records.With the exception of some keyboard work on 1980's and 1985's, Ahmad Jamal primarily returned to the acoustic piano after the 1970s, and has gone on to release at least another thirty albums.
AHMAD JAMAL - STEPPIN OUT WITH A DREAM (1976)TRACKLIST01. 'Handicapper' (7:37) - Jamal02. 'Prelude To A Kiss' (7:50) - Ellington, Gordon, Mills03. 'My One And Only Love' (8:48) - Mellin, Wood04. 'Tucson' (9:10) - Jamal05.
'Crossfire' (9:56) - JamalMUSICIANSBass - (misspelt 'Hurd' on cover)Drums -Guitar -Keyboards -Percussion -PRODUCTION INFORMATIONReleased 1976Produced by under the supervision of20th Century RecordsCatalogue # T-515Recorded & Mixed at Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CaliforniaEngineer -Photography - Michael PaladinArt Direction - JamicoCover & Liner Design - Michael LevyIllustration - Trici VenolaAHMAD JAMAL DISCOGRAPHY from Blogopolisat vzdora.net /at farofa modernadonated by Green (thanks!). At Free4Downloads(bootleg) at Kingcake KryptMP3 at Musica Desde Las AntipodasFLAC at Call It Anythingat vzdora.net / /at Jazz a Gogo /MISCELLANEOUSat T.R.O.Y. Ororiginals and hip hop flipsPOST CREDITS'Steppin out with a Dream' vinyl rip and scans by Simon666'Superstition' track CD rip by Simon666.The 'Jamalca' rip is a 224kbps soulseek find from pre-blog days that I've re-upped for this post.Apart from the blogs noted in the discography, album links within this post go to:My Jazz World, Pharoah's Dance, Oufar Khan, Funky Disposition, Baby Grandpa, Rock Savage, My Favorite Sound, J Thyme Kind, Blak's Lair, Things and Stuff and Music, and Inconstant Sol. Thanks to Wallofsound for the series of Jamal posts at prompted by this post.Please thank and support any blogs you click through to. Said.Me too, a big big fan of your blog Simon. That night at Cafe Lounge must have been great.
Please let us know if you're coming to perform in England!! There's a night in London that I absolutely recommend you if you ever visit the city. It's called jazz refreshed (and this guys are always the first to present the best soulful jazz that city gets to see. An amazing album to be released and that has links with this post is Kaidi Tatham's new album. This amazing musician is a kind of herbie hancock himself, being as good producer as a musician. So, not only you'll find Kaidi in the electronic broken beat department producing as part of Bugz in the Attic, together with 4 Hero or IG Culture but you'll also finding him doing Roy Ayers soloing like there's no tomorrow or playing straight ahead jazz, material from his new album that will be released this November I've seen him live a couple of times and I'm sure you're going to feel it:) Thanks again makuma. Said.Thanks for the comments guys.
Reza - maybe one day! But I'm really meant to be writing music at the moment, not writing about it. Some of this research and blogging is classic avoidance stuff for me:) A book would tip the balance too far. Wallofsound - thanks again!
A fascinating album, wrote about it on your blog, and have added to the discography here. I've also added a note here in the 'post credits' section about your Jamal posts - the link there goes to an 'Ahmad Jamal' search at Inconstant Sol, so will be up to date whenever people click it. Said.Added to discography:1968 'The Bright, The Blue and The Beautiful' at Sun ShipJamal with Voices - The Bright, The Blue, and the Beautiful (Cadet 807, Canadian Pressing)Ahmad Jamal - PianoJamil Sulieman - BassFrank Gant - DrumsHoward A Roberts ChoraleRecorded: February 12 & 13 1968, Fine Recording Studios, New YorkDusty Groove's Review:'Sounds cheesy - but this is a pretty wonderful album, the kind that really gets at the dark genius of Jamal! Ahmad's trio with Frank Gant and Jamil Sulieman is joined by the Howard A Roberts Chorale, set to arrangements by Jamal and Joe Kennedy that create these dreamy pillows of sound, pushing the voices forward like piles of feathers, supporting Ahmad's lines on piano with amazing subtlety, evoking a really moody late night sound. Richard Evans produced, and the whol thing has that sophisticated groove of the best late 60s Cadet work.
Titles include 'Never Let Me Go', 'Wild Is The Wind', 'Yesterdays', 'Of Bass I Love', and 'By Myself'. Said.Great sh.t as always Simon666 and everyone else!! Thanks.I was looking for a rip of one of his LPs and can't even remember which one now that I stumbled on this treasure of info and music. You guys never stop blowing my mind with music I wasn't aware of from artists I dig.BTW, thanks for linking us up at T.R.O.Y. To the sample compilations that my buddy Roy Johnson did. It looks like that other site just stole our post and ran with it, but whatever.
Ahmad Jamal Genetic Walk Zip 2
It's all good as long as people hear it. The more ears the merrier! Thanks again, I never sleep on this blog and never will. Please never retire, lol.Peace.