NEA Jazz Master AHMAD JAMAL to Release
New Album, SATURDAY MORNING,
Available September 10 on Jazz Village
Project Spotlights Jamal's Original Compositions
"All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal." - Miles Davis
"He commands attention." - Julian "Cannonball" Adderley
Saturday Morning - pianist/composer/bandleader and NEA Jazz Master Ahmad Jamal's new eleven-track album produced by Jazzbook Records, featuring his quartet, drummer Herlin Riley, bassist Reginald Veal and percussionist Manolo Badrena - is his impressive and invigorating follow-up to his GRAMMY® Award-nominated, 2012 Jazz Village release, Blue Moon.
With over nearly sixty recordings as a leader, this new album
represents another aural chapter in the musical life of this enduring
artist; who after six decades on the scene, is finally focusing more of
his recorded output on his own compositions.
"It's a natural
transition that happens when you reach maturity; with greater confidence
in yourself," Jamal says. "So, when you have greater confidence in
yourself, you begin to explore yourself. And now I'm exploring my own potential."
Save for his lovely and longing rendition of Duke Ellington's immortal ballad "I Got it Bad And That Ain't Good," and the Doris Day/Les Brown torch song "I'll Always Be With You;" his
impressionistic interpretation of the James Moody-associated jazz
standard, "I'm In the Mood for Love," and a "remix" of a funky, three
note-motif tune "One," recorded in the late seventies by Jamal, written
especially for him by the late composer Sigidi Abdallah all of the
tracks on Saturday Morning,
including the 4/4-Caribbean-cadenced tracks, "Back to the Future," "The
Line," "Firefly," "Edith's Cake," and the title track, are all written
by Jamal. They feature all of the inventions and dimensions of his
unique artistry: his profound and powerful pianist amalgam of Errol
Garner, Nat "King" Cole and Franz Liszt; his intricate,
orchestrally-influenced arrangements, and his signature use of space and
dynamics.
"I have a vast
repertoire," Jamal says. "I started composing when I was ten years old,
and my influences are far reaching: from Duke Ellington and Billy
Strayhorn, Jimmy Lunceford and Fletcher Henderson to [Claude] Debussy
and Maurice Ravel. In Pittsburgh, we didn't have that line between
American classical music and European classical music. We studied it
all."
One track from Saturday Morning
bears special mention. "Silver," a melodic, Latin jazz-tinged
composition, is something rare in the Jamal canon: a tribute written by
him to a fellow artist - in this case - to the brilliant
pianist/composer/bandleader Horace Silver, composer of many jazz
standards including "Song For My Father," and "Senor Blues."
"I wrote it some years
ago," Jamal says. "Horace is an ensemble player like myself. He's a
leader, and a very successful writer, to say the least. The last time I
saw him, I was working at the Catalina club in Los Angeles, and Horace
came to see me in a wheelchair ... So that shows you his respect for me,
which is matched by my respect for him."
As amazing as Ahmad Jamal
is, his musicians are also an important component of his artistry, as
evidenced by his current quartet. "My present players are spectacular
men," Jamal says. "Manolo has been off and on with me for a number of
years, and played a long time with Joe Zawinul and Weather Report.
Herlin's first job was with me; I took him out of New Orleans in the
eighties. Reginald Veal was with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln
Center. They all have great character. And you can't be a great musician
unless you have great character."
Other equally great
musicians of character have played with Jamal over the years, including
bassists Jamil Nasser, James Cammack and fellow NEA Jazz Master Richard
Davis, and drummers Frank Gant and Idris Muhammad. "I've been very
fortunate to have harnessed a whole list of notables and great musicians
in my groups," Jamal says. "What they get from me is how to be
supportive. And what could be more supportive than Vernel Fournier and
Israel Crosby?"
It was the immortal 1958 LP, But Not for Me: Ahmad Jamal Live at the Pershing
with the New Orleans-born Fournier on drums with equally ebullient
Crosby from Chicago on bass, that catapulted the Pittsburgh-born, former
child prodigy who left home at seventeen and scuffled for years in the
Windy City, into an overnight sensation. Jamal was so influential that
Miles Davis recorded many Jamal-associated songs, such as "A Gal in
Calico," "But Not for Me," "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" and "New
Rhumba," which was transcribed by Gil Evans into a big band arrangement.
Generations of pianists - from Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith
Jarrett to Eric Reed, Jacky Terrasson and Aaron Diehl, proudly
acknowledge his influence.
Unlike many of his
contemporaries, who have, in pianist Hampton Hawes' words become,
"casualties on the road to truth," Ahmad Jamal is a soul survivor, who
lived long enough to reap the benefits of his Olympian artistry - as
evidenced by his 1994 the American Jazz Masters fellowship award from
the National Endowment for the Arts, and his induction into the
prestigious Order of the Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, who named him an Officier de l'Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres in 2007. He's also sampled by many hip-hop artists
including Kanye West, Gangstarr, Jay-Z, and De La Soul.
Saturday Morning
represents the latest chapter in an astounding musical life that is far
from over. "I'm very thankful and grateful for my longevity," Jamal
says "And I'm looking forward to more discoveries. Every day is a new
discovery for me, and that's what makes life interesting."
| Ahmad Jamal - Saturday Morning |
UPCOMING AHMAD JAMAL TOUR DATES:
September 1 / Detroit Jazz Festival / Detroit, MI
September 19-21 / Jazz at Lincoln Center / New York, NY
September 27 & 28 / Manchester Craftsman's Guild / Pittsburgh, PA
October 12 / UC Davis Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts / Davis, CA
November 7-9 / Theatre De L'Odeon Europe / Paris, France
January 31 / All Blues / Lucerne, Switzerland
February 1 / All Blues / Geneva, Switzerland
June 23-30 / Costa Jazz Cruise 2014 / Cruise Ship Costa Fascinosa
Ahmad Jamal· Saturday Morning
Jazz Village · Release Date: September 10, 2013
For more information on Ahmad Jamal, please visit: ahmadjamal.com
For more information on Jazz Village, please visit: jazzvillagemusic.com
For more information on Jazzbook Records, please visit:
Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos
and bios) on all DL Media artists can be found at our new website: dlmediamusic.com
