LP-751

Ahmad Jamal – The Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd

Released 1965

Recording and Session Information

Ahmad Jamal, piano; Jamil Nasser, bass; Chuck Lampkin, drums
Nola Penthouse Studio, New York City, February 24+25 1965

13788 Who can I turn to?
13789 That's what it is to be young
13790 This dream
13791 The beautiful land
13792 Look at that face
13793 Where would you be without me?
13794 It isn't enough
13795 My first love song
13796 Sweet beginning
13797 A wonderful day like today
13798 Feeling good

Track Listing

Look At That Face	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Where Would You Be Without Me?	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
It Isn't Enough	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Sweet Beginning	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
The Dream	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Feeling Good	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
My First Love Song	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
A Wonderful Day Like Today	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
That's What It Is To Be Young	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
The Beautiful Land	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965

Liner Notes

BEFORE it arrived on Broadway, The Roar Of The Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd already had achieved a singular series of triumphs. Not only was it a spiraling hit on the road, but there were also more than fifty recordings of songs from the score (a pre-Broadway testament of optimism that exceeded even the welcoming trumpets that greeted Hello, Dolly! and Fiddler on the Roof), This album of Anthony Newley's and Leslie Bricusse's songs, however, is a distinctive tribute because the musical temperament and style of Ahmad Jamal are particularly suited to the Newley-Bricusse way of looking at life and reflecting what they see and hear in music.

Their previous American conquest was Stop the World—I Want To Get Off, a wry, poignant, irreverent morality play about the circular frustrations and self-evasions of a man "making it" in the 20th century jungle. The Roar of the Greasepaint—The Smell Of the Crowd is both a more astringent and more hopeful exploration of the game of life, At first, in an ingenious gameboard of a set, two figures are seen at the play of existence. Sir (Cyril Ritchard) represents those in power, whose basic characteristic is the over-riding desire to maintain power. Cocky (Anthony Newley) speaks for most of the rest of us — those without power or with such little power that we cannot really be in full charge of what hapens to us.

Evety time it app that Cocky may win a game, Sir changes the rules. I will not spoil your fun by detailing the rest of the plot, except to say that as new figures ppear, Cocky sees that there are other ways than his own passivity to counteract Sir. One can assert oneself; one can even refuse to play if the game is rigged. And finally, Cocky learns that he too can make his own rules so that Sir will have to learn to co-exist on equal terms rather than to dominate as if his power were a law of nature. It isn't.

The essentials of the Newley-Bricusse writing style — and of Newley's remarkably evocative skill as a performer — are disciplined simplicity, clarity of design, resiliant wit and a superb sense of timing. Without trying to make Jamal the image of them, it is nonetheless true that those same qualities describe Jamal's way of making music. Furthermore, Jamal himself is a contemplative, arching observer of the way we live now. He has strong feelings about the way things ought to be and could be and, like Newley and Bricusse, he has a firm sense of who he is and what his capacities are.

Accordingly, Jamal and this score fuse easily. Throughout, there are the immediately identifiable Jamal insignia — the plastic use of space; the lithe beat, the graceful humor and the sense of power in reserve. The propulsive force is there, as in sections of "Sweet Beginning" and "Feeling Good". He has supple sense of dynamics, and therefore, he is capable of varying gradations of climax. He swings without strain and with both subtlety and sensibility.

Tne softly glowing lyricism that is a fundamental element of Jamal's style is in evidence on every track, from the luminosity of "Where Would You Be Without Me?" to the aura of unfolding surprise he brings to "That's What It Is To Be Young". Chuck Lampkin and Jamil Nasser meanwhile provide Jamal with a crisply moving foundation on which he can play with time.

The album underlines the consistency of Jamal's firmly personal approach to music. Beginning in 1958 with his recording of a performance at Chicago's Pershing Hotel (Argo LP-628 & LPS-628), Jamal has experienced widening public delight in his work. He does not fall into any conveniently categorical "bag." He is, in sum, himself.

What Jamal has to offer musically - as in the recording — is refreshingly personal on its own terms. I mean his clarity, essentially sanguine view of life and his grace. And when you want to conjugate the possibilities of the kinds of kicks that come on a spring day, the Jamal microcosm is one place to visit. He is a singular part of today's roar of the greasepaint and smell of the crowd.

—NAT HENTOFF