Search - Ahmad Jamal :: A Quiet Time

Ahmad Jamal
A Quiet Time
Genres: Jazz, Pop

Track Listings (11) - Disc #1
1. Paris After Dark (Ahmad Jamal)
2. The Love is Lost (Ahmad Jamal)
3. Flight to Russia (Ahmad Jamal)
4. Poetry (Ahmad Jamal)
5. Hi Fly (Randy West)
6. My Inspiration (Ahmad Jamal)
7. After JALC (Jazz at Lincoln Center) (Ahmad Jamal)
8. A Quiet Time (Ahmad Jamal)
9. Tranquility (Ahmad Jamal)
10. The Blooming Flower (Ahmad Jamal)
11. I Hear A Rhapsody (Jack Baker, Dick Gasparre & George Fragos)

CD Details

All Artists: Ahmad Jamal
Title: A Quiet Time
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Dreyfus Jazz
Original Release Date: 1/1/2010
Re-Release Date: 1/26/2010
Genres: Jazz, Pop
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 764911694528

Synopsis

Album Description

The master and the zenith of modern piano, Ahmad Jamal, now at 79 years old, offers another brilliant recording in the pantheon of his legacy with A QUIET TIME, out on Dreyfus Jazz. On A Quiet Time, James Cammack's butter-thick bass lines and Manolo Badrena's atmospheric percussion provide the leader with the kind of simpatico support he's come to expect from his cohorts over the years, buoyed by Kenny Washington's in-the-pocket drumming, on his first recording with Jamal (in a drum chair that included New Orleans masters like Vernel Fournier, Herlin Riley, and Idris Muhammad). The CD's eleven tracks are all laced with Jamal's bottomless reservoir of inventions and dimensions, pulsed by that rhythmic gravity we call swing. Save for the ballad standard "I Hear a Rhapsody," which Jamal first recorded in 1966, and an invigorating, martial rendition of his good friend Randy Weston's "Hi Fly," the rest of the selections were composed by the leader, the majority of them, from 1997 to 2009. The title track, "Paris After Dark," Flight to Russia," "My Inspiration" dance and trance with Jamalian Latin tinges. "The Love is Lost," "The Blooming Flower," "Poetry" and "After JALC (Jazz at Lincoln Center)," highlight Jamal's signature mastery of waltz, 4/4 swing, and impressionistic ballad idioms. "Tranquility," a Jamal classic originally recorded in 1968, is reborn here with more intricate, labyrinthine arrangement that expands on the original melodic line.

CD Reviews

AHMAD JAMAL-HOT JAZZ MUSIC FROM THE PINNACLE OF HIS ART & YE

RBSProds | Deep in the heart of Texas | 03/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Five ENJOYABLE Stars! Pure swinging, inventive jazz brilliance. Jazz Hall of Fame keyboard master Ahmad Jamal turns 80 in 2010 and the intensity of his art on 'A Quiet Time" continues to unfurl as a beautiful testament to his place in jazz history, as he continues to play with urgency and fluency. He is a trailblazer with the genius to have influenced artists from Miles Davis (who told one of his pianists-"play like Ahmad Jamal" and who used Jamal's endlessly-looping "pedal point" techniques to develop Miles' "modal" works, which in turn influenced John Coltrane) to Cannonball Adderley to Randy Weston (who was working in a record shop when he first heard Jamal's "Poinciana") to Blossom Dearie (who adopted Jamal's approach when she was in Paris before breaking free) to Keith Jarrett to younger artists like the 21st Century keyboard sensation Hiromi of Place to Be whom he taught at Berklee. Like octogenarian virtuosos Artur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, and Hank Jones, Mr Jamal is as intense and exciting as ever as he nears that magical age 80 threshold. His group has been a quartet since the addition of heavyweight percussion 'conguero' Manolo Badrena 20 years ago on Rossiter Road. Bassist James Cammack with his singing tone and newcomer Kenny Washington's protean drumming round out the group. "A QUIET TIME" is anything but quiet: I find this CD to be a swinging, inspiring jazz experience from beginning to end: chock full of Jamal compositions with abrupt shifting tempos, funky lines, pedal points and vamps, end-to-end arpeggios, explosive two-handed block chords, shimmering interludes, and one other thing he taught Miles Davis: the use of silence and space.

Ahmad Jamal is a virtuoso who plays all 88 keys of the piano, as indicated by the title of one of his earliest recordings "Count 'Em 88". From a hot new version of "Tranquility", to cooking burners like the multi-tempo "After JACL (Jazz At Lincoln Center)" and "Paris After Dark", to pure mellow swingers like Randy Weston's "Hi Fly" and Jamal's own "Flight to Russia", he is inventive and masterful. Ahmad Jamal has always been one of jazz's premier balladeers and ballads like the complex beauty of "A Quiet Time", "The Blossoming Flower", the waltz "The Love is Lost", and "I Hear A Rhapsody" show how much depth of feeling and beauty this artist can give to a ballad, as he has shown since his beautiful, towering performance of "Maryam" over 60 years ago (which is now available on the Complete Recordings CD). This is Ahmad Jamal unleashing the virtuosity and wisdom of the years on this CD, which gets better with each listening session. May Mr Jamal continue to play far into the future. My Highest Recommendation. Five JAZZY Stars! (This review is based on an iTunes Plus download: 11 tracks, over 64 minutes total time.) (Trivia: Ahmad Jamal helped pioneer the piano, bass, guitar format in jazz with Ray Crawford on guitar, and then became one of the earliest artists to use piano, bass, and drums, by adding drummer Walter Perkins on "Count 'Em 88".)"