Further Details

Title: Blue Moon
Condition: New
Format: CD
EAN: 3149027000123
Release Date: 16/03/2012
Description: PRODUKTBESCHREIBUNGEN
KURZBESCHREIBUNG
Blue Moon is not just Ahmad Jamal's latest album, it's his latest masterpiece - suffused with a feeling reminiscent of his greatest periods with Chess and Impulse.

REZENSION
Pianist Ahmad Jamal (a man even Miles Davis credited as a big influence) is now 81 and he remains a genius at the art of motivic improvising, repeating a catchy theme (so listeners don't lose the plot) while transforming it with fresh melody. Here, Jamal combines eloquent originals with dazzling makeovers of American standards (Laura, Invitation, Gypsy and the title track), in the inspired company of Wynton Marsalis sidemen Reginald Veal (bass) and Herlin Riley (drums), with an incandescent Manolo Badrena on Latin percussion. Jamal's Autumn Rain opens the show with his trademark grandiloquent chords over a ticking rimshot groove, turning to rolling keyboard-length runs and a funk feel. Blue Moon is a classic firework display of silvery runs and arpeggios full of hints of the tune, the original I Remember Italy is a delicious, tender melody, and the jazz standby Woody 'n You is as vivacious a Latin dance as anything Jamal might have recorded in his early years. Sometimes his virtuosity takes Jamal over the top, but this session looks set to be one of his classics. FOUR STARS --The Guardian

Perhaps because his style of rhythmic conversation is conceptual as much as musical, at 81 years of age pianist Jamal sounds close to his 1950s Chess Records best. It helps that drummer Herlin Riley and bassist Reginald Veal create such a monster groove-machine, but the real masterstroke is the presence of percussionist Manolo Badrena. The title track is an absolute masterpiece, the whole 10 minutes poised on one repeated figure. Autumn Rain and Woody 'n You are almost as good. FOUR STARS --Independent on Sunday

What is remarkable is that this is no pale imitation of past glory, but more a celebration of life and all that he ahs learned in his long career in jazz. Miles Davis, once a dedicated fan, would have loved it FOUR STARS --Jazzwise

Blue Moon, which mixes much- loved standards, including a mesmerising version of the title tune, with some excellent new originals, gloriously recalls Jamal s classic albums for Chess in the 1950s...With support from Wynton Marsalis alumni Reginald Veal and Herlin Riley, and an extra dimension added by percussionist Manolo Badrena, the pianist proves that his ability to find the truth buried in a tune is as finely honed as it ever was. --CORMAC LARKIN, Irish Times, 24 February 2012

What is remarkable is that this is no pale imitation of past glory, but more a celebration of life and all that he ahs learned in his long career in jazz. Miles Davis, once a dedicated fan, would have loved it FOUR STARS --Jazzwise
No Of Discs: 1
Artist: Ahmad Jamal
Record Label: Jazz Villa (Harmonia Mundi)
Release Year: 2012

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