Just when you give up hope for anything fresh to come from the jazz piano tradition, here come two gents from the “Old School,” meaning: melody, rhythm, style, and above all…their own sound. AHHHH! This is why I love jazz!
What’s there to say about Ahmad Jamal that hasn’t already been said, except that he sounds better with each passing year. His spacious and percussive signature sounds, mixed with occasional bursts of lightning sound as exciting and alive as when he first started this mix back in the 50s. Lately, instead of fronting a trio, he’s using a quartet format with Reginald Veal/b, Herlin Riley/dr and Ex-Weather Reporter Manolo Badrena/perc. I’m just a sucker for a guy that is in no rush to get his point across; Jamal holds back,
just barely showing his cards on tunes like his own “Autumn Rain” or the standard “Invitation” but then flashes his royal flush just as the loping work of the rhythm team builds up a hypnotic rivulet of sound. He takes 10 patient minutes to dissect the inner lunar landscapes of “Blue Moon,” returning to a fragment of the melody over and over until it gets as deep as the Sea of Tranquility., while his reading of his own “Morning Mist” is as luminescent as a Ravel piece. These are songs as much as stories, yet still as swinging as anyone would want, as displayed on the intriguing “Woody’n You.” Sui generis.
Pianist Oliver Jones holds more to the traditional bop field, and there’s nothing wrong with that, as he leads a sympathetic team with Reggie Johnson/b and Ed Thigpen/dr through a thrill ride of a show in Switzerland. Recorded back in 1990, it serves as a workshop lesson in working an audience. One of the great things about a band like this is that they are able to cover any mood or genre, and handle it with authority. A ballad like “Emily” glides like Dorothy Hamill, while snappy stuff like Freddie Hubbard’s “Up Jumped Spring” glistens like the morning dew. A church classic like “Just A Closer Walk With Thee” sanctifies the club with some playing that will get you praising the Lord in no time flat, while the Gershwin medley takes you through Depression era USA like a sepia movie. Oliver has the potential to take the classy piano mantel from the recently departed Hank Jones and become the standard by which all graceful ivory players are measured.
Jazz Village Records
Justin Time Records