Ahmad Jamal: "Chamber Music of the New Jazz" (Verve, 1955)

Verve should be endlessly praised for reissuing superb albums like Ahmad Jamal's CHAMBER MUSIC OF THE NEW JAZZ on CD, bringing them back into commercial circulation so that jazz fans old and new can experience (or re-experience) their splendor. While the set list of 1955's CHAMBER MUSIC may appear standard, with treatments of "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "A Foggy Day" (Jamal's fine original "New Rumba" is the exception), there is nothing "standard" about this excellent session, in conception, sound, or execution.Both "chamber music" and "the new jazz" are appropriate appellations. The simultaneously stark/lush trio format--which features Jamal's piano in deep conversation with Israel Crosby's bass and Ray Crawford's guitar--gives the music a cerebral, floating feel. (Oddly enough, the drummerless background actually highlights the rhythmic intensity of each musician's playing--especially Crawford's pizzicato guitar work). The music also differentiates itself from the hard bop of the time in managing to merge advanced, complex playing with an exquisite sensitivity to dynamics and delicacy of mood. On each of these nine compositions, the musicians play with understated intensity, often using space as a rhythmic element (as on the interlude to "Darn That Dream").