Ahmad Jamal: Macanudo

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Richard Evans (arr, cond)
Chuck Lampkin (d)
Ahmad Jamal (p)
Israel Crosby (b)
Jamil Nasser (b)
Art Davis (b)
Vernel Fournier (d)

Label:

Solar

September/2014

Catalogue Number:

4569949

RecordDate:

2 July 1959, 20-21 December 1962 and 10 December 1963

You might think the Jazzwise office is testing my resistance to Jamal, just like when they sent Roy Carr one too many Herbie Mann records – but I couldn't possibly comment. This one is somewhat different anyway, in that the basic 1962 album consists of eight latin-lite orchestral pieces by Evans, with Jamal either playing written parts or filling assigned gaps with polite improv. (The fact that six tunes have Brazilian place-names for titles, including ‘Belo Horizonte’, should not be taken as a comment on the recent World Cup.) As such, the results are easy on the ear but not very jazzy. The bonus element is typical Jamal trio material, mostly from the 1959 Newport Festival where, since the balance doesn't exactly favour the piano, you're made all too aware of the theatricality of the arrangements, and the bass and drums' role in putting them across. A game of two halves, then.

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