Emerald City Nights (Jazz Detective)
Ahmad Jamal
Released December 2, 2022
All About Jazz Best Jazz Albums Of 2022
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About:
Emerald
City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1964) and (1965-1966) brings forth a
collection of previously unissued recordings of the iconic pianist Ahmad Jamal
captured live at the hallowed Penthouse jazz club in Seattle, WA between
1963-1968 with trios featuring bassists Richard Evans and Jamil Nasser, and
drummers Chuck Lampkin, Vernel Fournier and Frank Gant. Produced for release by
“Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman and supervised by Ahmad Jamal himself,
these recordings were transferred from the original tape reels and mastered for
vinyl by the legendary Bernie Grundman.
These first two individual limited-edition 180-gram 2-LP sets (1963-1965 and
1965-1966) are being released at the same time, with a third 2-LP volume
(1966-1968) to come at a later date. The deluxe packages include extensive
booklets with rare photos by Don Bronstein, Chuck Stewart and others; essays by
producer Zev Feldman, journalist Eugene Holley, Jr., radio DJ and original
recording engineer Jim Wilke, and son of the Penthouse owner, Charlie Puzzo
Jr.; and interviews with pianists Ramsey Lewis and Hiromi (1963-64), Jon
Batiste and Kenny Barron (1965-1966), plus producer Marshall Chess of
Chess/Argo Records, and others.
Track Listing:
Disc 1
1. Johnny One Note 10:29
2. Minor Adjustments 07:20
3. All of You 06:06
4. Squatty Roo 10:27
Disc 2
1. Bogota 12:16
2. Lollipops & Roses 07:45
3. Tangerine 08:16
4. Keep On Keeping On 08:58
5. Minor Moods 13:48
6. But Not for Me 05:21
Personnel:
Ahmad Jamal: piano
Richard Evans: bass
Jamil Sulieman Nasser: bass, acoustic
Chuck Lampkin: drums
Vernel Fournier: drums
Frank Gant: drums
Recorded March
1965 – September 1966, at the Penthouse, Seattle, WA
Produced for release by Zev Feldman
Co-produced by Andrew Stayman
Executive Producer: Ahmad Jamal
Executive Producers for Elemental Music: Jordi Soley
and Carlos Agustín Calembert
Associate Producers: Zak Shelby-Szyszko, Joe Alterman, Jim Wilke and Charlie Puzzo
Jr.
Review:
2022 marks the ninety-second
year of pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal. An NEA Jazz Master and Grammy
winner, in 2007 he was designated a Kennedy Center honoree as a Living
Jazz Legend. His first release was The Three Strings (Epic, 1951)
and, throughout that decade, he recorded a dozen albums, all in a piano trio
format. Of Jamal’s approximately seventy recordings, he has employed
orchestras, choirs, and larger ensembles but his catalog includes dozens of
trio releases. His groundbreaking At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Argo,
1958) remained on the charts for two years and brought admiration from everyday
jazz fans and luminaries such as Miles Davis. Live at
Pershing made Jamal a star, albeit one that often appeared at a fixed
point in the cosmos, indifferent to the rotation of the Earth. On the strength
of his first live recording’s broad appeal, Jamal maintained a healthy
following through a subsequent series of innocuous releases. The new label,
Jazz Detective, offers listeners Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse,
a double-LP spanning 1963 to 1966 performances. The collection effectively
establishes that the live Jamal has a more significant musical presence.
Jamal has been a creature of habit, playing with the same musicians for many
years and often adhering to a repertoire dominated by standards. However, he
has imprinted his unique style of playing even on the most worn-out
pieces. Emerald City Nights finds the young Jamal at the peak of his
inventiveness in these two volumes of live performances at the Seattle venue.
His classically-infused, hard bop “Johnny One Note” shows him to be
anything but stuck on a singular approach. On “Minor Adjustments” and
“Bogota” Jamal’s fluctuating and weighty playing, combined with Mach
1 speed and European touches, are thoroughly invigorating. He displays his most
inventive stylings on “Tangerine” and the mid-tempo “Minor
Moods.” Throughout Emerald City Nights, Jamal has solid support from
bassists Richard Evans and Jamil Sulieman Nasser and
drummers Chuck Lampkin, Vernel Fournier, and Frank Gant.
The hyperbolic jazz advocate Stanley Crouch once asked if Sonny
Rollins was “washed up or simply studio averse.” It was an
extreme assumption but the premise is valid and it is fair to ponder whether
Ahmad Jamal was less ambitious off-stage. His studio recordings demonstrated
little growth in technique across five decades of music. But Jamal’s live
recordings show a different side of the pianist and that has never been more
clearly heard than on Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse. The
limited edition double-LP will be issued in November 2022, followed by a two-CD
set and digital release in December 2022. A third volume is expected in the
future.
Karl Ackerman (All About Jazz)
