LP-610

Ahmad Jamal – Count 'Em 88

Released 1956

Recording and Session Information

Chicago, IL, September 27, 1956
Ahmad Jamal, piano; Israel Crosby, bass; Walter Perkins, drums

8258 Spring will be a little late this year
8262 On Green Dolphin Street
8263 Beat out one
8264 Maryam
8266 How about you?
8267 It's easy to remember
8268 Jim loves Sue
8269 Volga boatman
Also recorded at this session:

8259 I know
8260 Cheek to cheek
8261 Speak low
8265 Makin' whoopee

Chicago, IL, October 4, 1956
Ahmad Jamal, piano; Israel Crosby, bass; Walter Perkins, drums

8283 I just can't see for lookin'

Also recorded at this session:

8282 I wish I knew (unissued)
8284 But not for me (unissued)

Track Listing

Volga Boatmen	Traditional	September 27 1956
On Green Dolphin Street	Bronisław Kaper, Ned Washington	September 27 1956
How About You?	Burton Lane, Ralph Freed	September 27 1956
I Just Can't See for Looking	Nadine Robinson, Dok Stanford	October 4 1956
Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year	Frank Loesser	September 27 1956
Beat Out One	Ahmad Jamal	September 27 1956
Maryam	Ahmad Jamal	September 27 1956
It's Easy to Remember	Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers	September 27 1956
Jim Love Sue	Ahmad Jamal	September 27 1956

Liner Notes

For some years now, Chicago has been fortunate enough to be the home base for the operations of pianist Ahmad Jamal.

A succession of engagements at various of the Windy City's spas, interrupted only occasionally by dates elsewhere such as New York's Embers, has made Ahmad one of the most celebrated of that city's many talented jazzmen.

A slim, guileless-looking, fastidiously-dressed gentleman whose boyish look belies his 26 years. Ahmad first burst into prominence when Down Beat's Pat Harris reported him as a new find when he worked the Blue Note in 1950, heading a group called the Three Strings.

Previous to that he had left his native Pittsburgh to work with the George Hudson band out of St. Louis, which also contained saxist Ernie Wilkins, now better known for the enormous amount of composing and arranging he does for bands and record dates.

Ahmad returned to Pittsburgh to join a group called the Four Strings, which became a forerunner to the Three Strings which did so well at the Blue Note and other Chicago spots.

It was in the spring of 1952, when he played the Embers, that noted critic John Hammond hailed the Jamal trio as "prodigious" and "Unbelievably subtle."

Jamal is indeed subtle, and he is dart-quick in facility, with a firm-yet-delicate touch that enables him to skim through figures that is charted on graph paper would look like the ups and downs in the career of Yellow Kid Weil.

It is obvious at first hearing that Ahmad approaches a piano as a skilled fisherman might a mile-long lake teeming with fish. He has a lot of room to get a lot out of it, and he casts about with sure skill, utilizing the entire area to achieve his results.

This is a long way to go about saying that Jamal is a two-handed pianist, a species sometimes difficult to find. It is demonstrated neatly here, however, as is his good taste and droll sense of humor. You might be as happy as I aha that he chose to include I Just Can't See for Lookin', a Nat Cole vocal effort a decade ago.

Easy to Remember is a good example of the unit feel the trio achieves, and their romping qualities come out on Beat Out One.

Ahmad is offered the sturdy support here of bassist Israel Crosby, for years a well-known figure in jazz, and drummer Walter Perkins, whose credits include work with Ben Webster. He frequently was the drummer for Jutta Hipp when he was stationed in Germany a couple of years ago.

They provide friendly atmosphere for Jamal, who is content that this is the best set of sides he has yet recorded.

I will have to agree with him.

JACK TRACY
Editor, Down Beat Magazine

Recording Engineer: BERNIE CLAPPER
Cover Photography - Design: DON BRONSTEIN
Supervision: PHIL CHESS
Date Recorded: 10/4/56
Universal Record Corp.
CHESS PRODUCING CORP. 2120 SO. MICHIGAN