Renowned for being laconic (and sometimes brutally so) Miles Davis was rarely effusive when evaluating the talent of other musicians. When it came to Ahmad Jamal, however – the innovative Pittsburgh pianist who popularised the jazz trio and changed his name from Fritz Jones when he converted to Islam in 1952 – the trumpeter often waxed lyrical. In his 1989 autobiography, Davis wrote: “He knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement, and the way he phrased notes and chords and passages.” Davis also readily acknowledged Jamal’s influence on his own evolution as a musician, especially in regard to his minimalism and spatial awareness.
This magnificent new limited edition box set focuses on the Jamal trio’s most fertile years (1956-62) when they recorded for Chess’s jazz imprint, Argo. Spread across nine discs, there are 12 complete albums – including the classic live set, At The Pershing – and producer Michael Cuscuna has also liberated 23 previously unheard tracks from the vaults, which certainly adds to this set’s allure and desirability. As jazz connoisseurs have come to expect from Mosaic, the presentation, remastering and accompanying annotation (the sleevenotes contain a long and revealing interview with Jamal himself, who gave his blessing to the project) is unimpeachable. Jazz heaven.
