Birdology Records
2003
In Search Of
About This Album
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.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,5,8 and 10)

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