Ahmad Jamal Comes to Yoshi's

The great jazz pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal will be performing at Yoshi's in Oakland, January 4th-8th. His most recent album, "After Fajr", was recorded live with his trio in France last year, and is considered one of his best. Recorded with bassist James Cammack, and the masterful Idris Muhammad on drums, his "Live in Baalbeck" DVD and the "L'Olympia 2000" CD concerts, are two of my personal favorites, and a must for Jamal fans. Jamal continues to tour throughout the world, as he has for the last five decades. Noted for his outstanding technical command and identifiable sound as a piano stylist, Jamal ranks as one of the most influential and popular artists in the history of jazz music.

He is one of the few jazz artists to sell over 1 million copies of an individual recording with "But Not For Me", which featured the huge hit "Poinciana", (Jamal's favorite Caribbean tree), which stayed on the charts for an unprecedented 108 weeks. Considering his trio "an orchestra," Jamal not only achieves a unified sound, but subtly inserts independent roles for the bass and drums. The hallmarks of his style are rhythmic innovations, colorful harmonic perceptions and the unique sense of space in his music, making his concepts exciting without being loud in volume.

The New York Times reviewer Ben Ratliff said of Jamal's "After Fajr", that the jazz pianist "knows how to get attention and reaction, and he has been tightening his rhetoric for more than 50 years. But the experience has grown more complicated. At the peak of his popularity, in the late 1950's, his trio played so precisely that its musicians sounded as if they were wired together, and Mr. Jamal kept veering between roars and pitter-patters; while other pianists drove percussively through complicated chord changes -- which somehow seemed more honest and authentic at the time -- he was criticized for sounding mannered." Mr. Jamal's playing has become more idiosyncratic and tumultuous. His new album, ''After Fajr'' (Dreyfus), recorded live with his trio in France last year, is one of his best.

The standard ''Time on My Hands,'' from the new record, describes how his old style has evolved. Jamal likes to play gentle, perfumed melodies as single notes in the high register of the keyboard. But then he balances them with darker, authoritative ringing tones from the lower end; he drawls and withdraws almost to the point of disappearing, then returns like a bulldozer, playing in a jacked-up, dislocating style. His music can be pushy and imperious, and he doesn't parse down to a recognizable aesthetic profile.

In his own pieces, like ''Manhattan Reflections,'' Jamal likes to use simple melodies, funk rhythms and vamps, and his trio, with bassist Cammack and the New Orleans native, drummer Muhammad, can keep them sounding fresh for a long time under his solos, while he unleashes his supply of short and fascinating diversions."

Steve Huey, of the "All Music Guide", wrote that Jamal was a "sorely underexposed figure and a major influence on Miles Davis. Jamal isn't generally ranked among the all-time giants of jazz, but he impressed fellow musicians and record buyers alike with his innovative, minimalist approach. Jamal's manipulations of space and silence, tension and release, and dynamics all broke new ground, and had an impact far beyond Jamal's favored piano trio format. As an arranger, Jamal made the most of his small-group settings by thinking of them in orchestral terms: using his trademark devices to create contrast and dramatic effect, and allowing the rhythm section a great deal of independence in its interplay. Nonetheless, his ensembles were always tightly focused as well, following their leader through sudden changes in tempo or time signature, and often carrying the main riff of a tune.

Jamal's own playing was a model of economy, because he didn't overwhelm listeners with his technique, his flashes of virtuosity had significantly more impact. His lines were spare and light, yet melodically and harmonically inventive, and driven by complex left-hand chord voicings that broke with Bud Powell's right-hand emphasis. A chamber-like sensibility and a classical formality permeated much of his playing, yet he swung like a jazzman without fail. Miles Davis greatly admired him, borrowing liberally from his repertoire and arrangements, and encouraging his pianist Red Garland to imitate Jamal's playing as closely as possible. Additionally, Jamal's concepts of space and subtlety greatly affected Davis in his own right, both as a soloist and as a bandleader who (as it's often put) let the music breathe."

Alongside my personal all-time jazz piano favorites, Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Thelonius Monk, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul, Horace Silver, and Keith Jarrett, stands the fabulous Ahmad Jamal. The late jazz vocalist Shirley Horn and her trio of bassist Ed Howard and drummer Steve Williiams, raved to me last year about Jamal's work on Horn's last album, "May The Music Never End", (Jamal played on two songs, "Maybe September" and "This Is All I Ask"). Jamal also briefly toured Europe with them. A "real treat" Shirley told me, "I wish I had him all the time". Do yourself a favor, and treat yourself to one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.

Ahmad Jamal at Yoshi's in Oakland
Wednesday, January 4 - Sunday, January 8
Wed, Thu 8:00pm Shows $20, 10:00pm Shows $14
Fri 8:00pm Show $24, 10:00pm $18
Sat Shows at 8:00pm & 10:00pm $24
Sun 2:00pm Matinee, $5 Kids, $15 Adult W/One Kid, $20 General
Sun 8:00pm Show $24