New Ahmad Jamal album to be released in early 2012

from Jazzwise:

Ahmad Jamal is to release his latest album Blue Moon on 6 February, one of the first major jazz releases of 2012. An important release by any standard from one of the greatest pianists in jazz history it features a stellar trio specially convened for the session playing Jamal originals and choice standards. It will come out on new French label Jazz Village, a sister label to Harmonia Mundi’s World Village imprint.

The great Pittsburgh-born pianist, now 81, was a key inspiration of Miles Davis, a fact alluded to heavily in Miles’ autobiography. Roy Carr in Jazzwise reviewing a recent reissue of At the Pershing: But Not for Me, his Pershing Lounge recording in Chicago from 1958 where Jamal laid down his masterpiece with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier comments that But Not For Me sold in quite extraordinary numbers clocking up some two million copies in the US alone. “One purchaser was Miles Davis. Not one to freely hand out plaudits, Miles admitted being greatly influenced by the piano man’s judicious use of time and space to the point of adding Jamal’s treatments of ‘But Not For Me’, ‘Billy Boy’, ‘The Surrey With The Fringe On Top,’ among others, into his own repertoire.”

Jamal’s trios over the years rate among the very best in jazz history, and he is a master of improvising on standards and original song-based material, and is particularly renowned for his interpretation of the standard ‘Poinciana’. In performance he takes on the mantle of an Erroll Garner at times as a starting point and layers hugely impressive rhapsodies and serenades almost at the drop of a hat. He’ll sometimes stand up by the piano, turn his back to the audience to communicate further with the trio, and then sit down to resume the flow.

With an extensive discography since the 1950s, in more recent years with the French Dreyfus label, Jamal has a big public across Europe particularly in France and Germany although he is a regular visitor to the UK performing at Ronnie Scott’s most recently four years ago. Jamal was honoured by the French government becoming an officer of the order of arts also in 2007, and has received many more honours over the years in the United States.

The new album features the elegant bassist Reginald Veal, known for his work with both Wynton Marsalis and more recently Cassandra Wilson, and the formidable New Orleansian Herlin Riley on drums, who like Veal has worked extensively with Marsalis and Wilson, with the pair appearing on the latter’s Grammy award winning album Loverly. They are also joined by ex-Weather Report percussionist Manolo Badrena, who has toured with Jamal extensively in recent years. Tracks on the album are Jamal’s ‘Autumn Rain’; the standard and title track ‘Blue Moon’ (Rodgers and Hart); ‘Gypsy’ (Billy Reid); ‘Invitation’ (Bronisław Kaper); ‘Jamal’s ‘I Remember Italy’; ‘Laura (David Raksin/ Johnny Mercer); Jamal’s ‘Morning Mist’; ‘This Is The Life’ (Lee Adams/Charles Strouse); and ‘Woody ’n’ You’ (Dizzy Gillespie).