AHMAD JAMAL - The Essence, Part 1 (1995) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Mostly recorded in Paris, with two additional tracks from New York, this absorbing collection is a testament to the continuing ability of Ahmad Jamal to startle and engage jazz listeners who are tired of Tyner/Evans clones and want to hear something different. An equal mixture of standards and Jamal compositions, some of which move through several contrasting sections, this CD reaches its peaks when Jamal and company dive in and work around a single bass ostinato and a propulsive rhythm groove. Bassists James Cammack (Paris) and Jamil Nasser (New York) provide the former, drummer Idris Muhammad and percussionist Manolo Badrena are in charge of the latter, and a tough-sounding George Coleman turns up on tenor on the New York tracks. One fascinating quirk -- Jamal seemed fixated upon Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments" at these sessions, for he quotes the tune several times on the album. These sessions were so fruitful that Verve was able to serve up a tasty second helping a year later. by Richard S. Ginell
Tracklist :
1    Flight    6:32
Ahmad Jamal
2    Toulouse    6:56
Ahmad Jamal
3    The Essence    10:14
Ahmad Jamal
Bass – Jamil Nasser
Tenor Saxophone – George Coleman
4    Lover Man     5:49
Jimmy Davis / Roger "Ram" Ramirez / Jimmy Sherman
5    Catalina    6:44
Ahmad Jamal
6    Autumn Leaves    6:58
Joseph Kosma / Johnny Mercer / Jacques Prévert
Bass – Jamil Nasser
Tenor Saxophone – George Coleman
7    Street Of Dreams    5:33
Sam M. Lewis / Victor Young
8    Bahia    6:35
Abelardo Barroso
Credits :
Bass – James Cammack (faixas: except tracks 3 & 6)
Drums – Idris Muhammad
Percussion – Manolo Badrena
Piano – Ahmad Jamal
 

AHMAD JAMAL - Big Byrd : The Essence, Part 2 (1996) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The elements that made The Essence Part One such a success - bright, crisp, rhythmically alive piano work often revolving around a tense bass ostinato and propulsive percussion - are abundantly present on Part Two, which was drawn from the same Paris and New York sessions but released a year after its predecessor. In no way is this a collection of leftovers; the quality level is so high that one can only conclude that marketing considerations alone prevented The Essence from being issued as a double album in the first place. Jamal fields two trios, anchored on bass by James Cammack in the Paris sessions and former colleague Jamil Nasser in the New York ones and by drummer Idris Muhammad on both. Everyone gets an extra jolt of momentum whenever the Afro-Latin percussion of Manolo Badrena goes into action, and violinist Joe Kennedy Jr. adds a potent, slightly raw-edged solo voice to "Manhattan Relfections." A muted, skittering Donald Byrd appears only on the title track - hence its name - which winds its way through several tempo changes and dramatically charged sections over a vast 15-minute timespan. Into his mid-60s, Jamal remained as distinctive and inventive a pianist as ever, with delightful surprises lurking around every bend. by Richard S. Ginell 
Tracklist :
1    Lament    8:59
Ahmad Jamal
2    There's A Lull In My Life    6:38
Mack Gordon / Harry Revel
3    Manhattan Reflections    8:35
Ahmad Jamal
4    Big Byrd    15:13
Ahmad Jamal
5    Jamie My Boy    9:36
Ahmad Jamal
6    I Love You    8:30
Cole Porter
Credits :
Bass – James Cammack (faixas: 1, 2, 5, 6), Jamil Nasser (faixas: 3, 4)
Drums – Idris Muhammad
Percussion – Manolo Badrena (faixas: 3 to 6)
Piano – Ahmad Jamal
Trumpet – Donald Byrd (faixas: 4)
Violin – Joe Kennedy, Jr. (faixas: 3) 

AHMAD JAMAL - Nature : The Essence, Part 3 (1998) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Still pursuing his own muse, Jamal is up to his usual tricks with his hypnotic vamps and and feverish runs, as ever refusing to toe the line and sound like everyone else. In this, the third installment of his Essence series, Jamal adds a different twist -- a fine jazz steel drum player named Othello Molineaux -- and he mixes a few transfigured standards ("The End of a Love Affair" is completely re-routed through his nervous system) with pieces of his own. The first version (for quartet) of "If I Find You Again" is a magnificent example of the tension Jamal can generate. "And We Were Lovers" and "Chaperon" are huge, borderline bombastic piano solos that ought to erase any doubts that Jamal continues to command one monster keyboard technique. As in the previous Essence entries, a guest horn player shows up briefly, tenorman Stanley Turrentine in epigrammic form on "Devil's in My Den," and the ultra-responsive rhythm section remains Idris Muhammad (drums) and James Cammack (bass). by Richard S. Ginell
Tracklist :
1    If I Find You Again (Quartet)    7:48
Ahmad Jamal
2    Like Someone In Love    6:44
Johnny Burke / James Van Heusen
3    Chaperon    2:44
Ahmad Jamal
4    Devil's In My Den    4:56
Ahmad Jamal
5    And We Were Lovers    3:25
Jerry Goldsmith
6    Fantastic Vehicle    4:38
Joe Kennedy, Jr.
7    The End Of A Love Affair    6:59
Edward Redding
8    Cabin In The Sky    8:47
Vernon Duke / Ahmad Jamal / John Latouche / Traditional
9    If I Find You Again (Duet)    4:43
Ahmad Jamal
Credits :
Bass – James Cammack
Piano – Ahmad Jamal
Steel Drums – Othello Molineaux
Tenor Saxophone – Stanley Turrentine (faixas: 4) 

AHMAD JAMAL - In Search of Momentum (2003) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A guy who Miles Davis called his favorite piano player, Ahmad Jamal has always earned respect among other musicians and critics for his consistent and innovative five-decade career, but the general public has never celebrated him. Why is anybody's guess, except that he's never been one for self-promotion; he's always been too busy making music to talk about it much. This trio date, featuring the greatest soul-jazz drummer of all time -- Idris Muhammad -- and bassist James Cammack, is one of the most fiery and inspired of Jamal's career. Kicking it off with "In Search Of," Jamal's more percussive style is in evidence, kicking it with ninths and even elevenths in shifting time signatures in a modern version of something that unites McCoy Tyner's Coltrane period with the barrelhouse. Jamal's trademark dissonances are juxtaposed against his whimsical lyric side in "Should I," a tune he has played live for decades. His right-hand legato phrasing and a near Monk-ish sense of harmony highlight his cascading arpeggios and enormous chord voicings. And harmony is the central motif of this album. Jamal's sense of melodic and harmonic development is under-recognized, even as he has used both Ellington and Oscar Peterson for starting points and built upon them via Monk's engagement with rhythm and "wrong" notes. His chords are unique among jazz pianists in that they can be incorporated wholesale as part of a rhythmic attack or in single- or double-note clusters to swing the tune into its lyric.
As a rhythm section, Muhammad and Cammack are perfectly suited to Jamal because the seemingly teetering shifts in time and pulse are never taken for granted and never merely followed, but executed according to the pianist's penchant for making his compositions swing in a songlike manner. A wonderful surprise here is the vocal of soul singer O.C. Smith on the Jamal/Aziza Miller tune "Whispering." Smith is best known as the singer of the soul hit "Little Green Apples," but his talent is far more diverse than that. Here are traces of Big Joe Williams, Lou Rawls, and Charles Brown caressed by the trio's shimmering accompaniment. His performance is flawless. While Jamal's compositions are the album's high points, there are no dead-dog tracks here at all: A reading of the Frank Loesser nugget "I've Never Been in Love Before" reflects in the trio's playing the vocal stylings of both Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald. Also, Monty Alexander's "You Can See" is reinvented by the Jamal trio and comes off as a splashy, singing number suited for the stage as much as a jazz band. Jamal's ostinato and glissandi theatricality are dramatic but never showy. He punches the melodic invention in his solos and keeps the rhythm section moving, but never overshadows the body of the tune. This is a beautiful offering by one of the true jazz masters of our time. At 72, Jamal is even more of a pianistic enigma than he was as a young man. Highly recommended.
(This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa')
Tracklist :
1     In Search Of 6:22
Ahmad Jamal
2     Should I? 5:28
Nacio Herb Brown / Arthur Freed
3     Excerpts from I'll Take the 20 3:10
Ahmad Jamal
4     Whisperings 6:33
Ahmad Jamal / L. Aziza Miller
5     Island Fever 4:39
Ahmad Jamal
6     I've Never Been in Love Before 6:15
Frank Loesser
7     Where Are You? 7:02
Harold Adamson / Jimmy McHugh
8     Where Are You Now? 6:58
Ahmad Jamal
9     You Can See 6:49
Monty Alexander
10     I'll Always Be With You 5:03
Marjorie Goetschius / Edna Osser
Credits :
Bass – James Cammack
Drums – Idris Muhammad
Producer, Piano – Ahmad Jamal