Ahmad Jamal - The Essence (Part One) (Remastered 2025) (1995)

When this album came out in 1995, it was an incredible breath of oxygen that penetrated the lungs of jazz, until then asphyxiated by young wolves, or let's say young clones, who were competing to see who could best imitate McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans or Herbie Hancock... This album by Ahmad Jamal, a legendary pianist if ever there was one, is perhaps his greatest album of the decade...

After two disappointing albums released by Telarc in the early '90s (here and here...), here he is with a project that's downright exciting and worthy of his talent. Jamal has a new lease on life.Surrounded by a rhythm section he knows very well (his friends James Cammack, Jamil Nasser and Idris Muhammad are all part of the project), and with the exception of Israel Crosby and Vernell Fournier, Jamal has never felt more at ease than with these three. He also reunites with Manolo Badrena on percussion and George Coleman, an unfortunately little-known tenor saxophonist with an impressive track record (from Max Roach to Chet Baker and Miles Davis).

Jamal's style is percussive piano, incredible finesse and suppleness of play, and an unheard-of sense of revival and dynamics. In short, if this pianist is unavoidable, it's also because he's a sacred monster with his own identifiable "sound", right from the very first bars. You won't soon forget him...

Ahmad Jamal - piano
James Cammack - basse (pistes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 et 8)
Jamil Nasser - basse (pistes 3 et 6)
Idris Muhammad - batterie
Manolo Badrena - percussions
George Coleman - saxophone tenor (pistes 3 et 6)