LP-703

Ahmad Jamal – At The Blackhawk

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Ahmad Jamal, piano; Israel Crosby, bass; Vernel Fournier, drums
Blackhawk, San Francisco, January 31, February 1 1962

11737 The second time around
11738 (Medley :)
Alone together
Love walked in
11739 Smoke gets in your eyes
11740 We live in two different worlds
11741 The best thing for you
11742 (Medley :)
I'll take romance
My funny Valentine
11743 I'm old fashioned
11744 Like someone in love
11745 Angel eyes
11746 Darn that dream
11747 Falling in love with love
11748 On Green Dolphin Street
11749 April in Paris
11750 We kiss in a shadow
11833 Night mist blues
Like someone in love (alt #1)
Like someone in love (alt #2)
The second time around (alt #1)
The second time around (alt #2)

Track Listing

I'll Take Romance	Oakland-Hammerstein	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
My Funny Valentine	Rodgers-Hart	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
Like Someone In Love	Van Heusen-Burke	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
Falling In Love With You	Rodgers-Hart	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
The Best Thing For You	Irving Berlin	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
April In Paris	Harburg-Duke	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
The Second Time Around	Van Heusen-Kahn	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
We Live In Two Different Worlds	Fred Rose	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
Night Mist Blues	Ahmad Jamal	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962

Liner Notes

IN THE HISTORY of jazz there has been only a handful of rhythm sections that have approached perfection. Basie had such a group in the late Thirties and Forties, and Ahmad Jamal had onc from 1954 to 1961, when these marvelous sides were at the Blackhawk in San Francisco.

The death, in August 1962 of the bassist Crosby, marked the irrevocable finale to the particular trio that has given me more pleasure than any other in the past decade. At the age of sixteen Crosby made his first discs in Chicago with Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman and an all-star small combo, and from that time on there never was another bassist to equal him. His intonation was impeccable, his technique prodigious he never bothered to display it, and — most important of all — he was the complete ensemble musician. His prowess gave Jamal a freedom to experiment in a way no other pianist has dared to do.

The Ahmad Jamal Trio far transcends the jazz world, and the fact that it has been consistently the most popular trio on records has caused the self-styled jazz critics to polish off such epithets as "commercial" and "cocktail music". Pay the writers no mind, and listen to some of the most sensitive, delicate and subtle music in jazz history.

There is one track on the second side of this disc that will go down in history as one of the greatest of all blues performances: "Night Mist Blues". For me this is the crowning achievement of Ahmad's recording career, and one can only hope that it can become a two-sided single hit. Ahmad plays with a gusto he usually hides. Crosby is miraculous and Fournier on drums, nothing short of perfection.

In the days when this writer was a critic himself, nothing used to infuriate him more than superlatives on liner notes. He steers away from them on the occasional copy he writes for Columbia albums; but when confronted by a record like this plus the memory of Israel Crosby he has had to succumb to his enthusiasm.

Since Crosby's death Ahmad has been searching for the right successor, and finally in Richard Evans he has found one. If Vernell Fournier can be persuaded to return the magic of the Jamal Trio can continue. This, alas, is the final disc of that unparalleled threesome: Jamal, Fournier and Crosby.

John Hammond

LP-702

Milt Buckner – Midnight Mood

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Milt Buckner, organ; Johnny Pate, bass; Maurice Sinclaire, drums
Chicago, March 1961

I Almost Lost My Mind
I'm Just A Lucky So And So
If I Should Lose You
I've Got The World On A String
One For My Baby
Cocktails For Two
Little White Lies
There Is No Greater Love
Love Is The Thing
Baby Baby All The Time
A Sunday Kind Of Love
Bouncing At Dawn

Track Listing

I Almost Lost My Mind	Ivory Joe Hunter	March 1961
I'm Just A Lucky So And So	Ellington, David	March 1961
If I Should Lose You	Robin, Rainger	March 1961
I've Got The World On A String	Arlen, Koehler	March 1961
One For My Baby	Arlen, Mercer	March 1961
Cocktails For Two	Coslow, Johnston	March 1961
Little White Lies	Donaldson	March 1961
There Is No Greater Love	Jones, Symes	March 1961
Love Is The Thing	Young, Washington	March 1961
Baby Baby All The Time	Bobby Troup	March 1961
A Sunday Kind Of Love	Leonard, Belle, Rhodes, Prima	March 1961
Bouncing At Dawn	Buckner	March 1961

Liner Notes

ENOUGH praise has been heaped upon Milt Buckner to more than last a life time, and another, and another. His story has been written and rewritten. We can only project him in another phase of music, another mood.

This is Milt in a subdued, romantic profile, music for early listening music for late listening, "Midnight Mood" is music for "squares" for "hippies", for 'tsquare hippies", any way you interpret it, it's the kind of thing you can put on the turntable and relax.

From Joe Hunter's I Almost Lost My Mind to Milt's own composition, Bouncing At Dawn, it's sheer delight to hear mood pattern after mood pattern, sometimes haunting, sometimes vibrant, sometimes whimsical. Here is a musician who has gone through many changes during his long musical tenure, but always unselfishly trying to please his audiences, playing to the "people", a musicians' musician, and so another page is added to Milt Buckner's book of immortal "Musicana", and not the last.

Ralph Bass

LP-701

The Ramsey Lewis Trio – Country Meets The Blues

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass, cello; Redd Holt, drums; Lew Douglas (dir, strings), Oliver Nelson (dir, reeds)
Bell Sounds Studios, New York, August 2+3 1962

11808 Your cheatin' heart
11809 St. Louis blues
11810 Memphis in June
11811 Country meets the blues
11812 Blueberry Hill
11813 High noon
11814 I need you so
11815 I just want to make love to you
11816 Tangleweed 'round my heart
11817 Bucket's got a hole in it

Track Listing

Your Cheatin' Heart	H. Williams	August 2+3 1962
St. Louis Blues	W. C. Handy	August 2+3 1962
Blueberry Hill	Lewis, Stock, Rose	August 2+3 1962
Country Meets The Blues	R. Lewis	August 2+3 1962
Memphis In June	Carmichael	August 2+3 1962
High Noon	Tiomkine, Washington	August 2+3 1962
I Need You So	Hunter	August 2+3 1962
I Just Want To Make Love To You	W. Dixon	August 2+3 1962
Tangleweed 'Round My Heart	Wyatt, Kelley	August 2+3 1962
My Bucket's Got A Hole In It	C. Williams	August 2+3 1962

Liner Notes

JAZZ is a feeling rather than statement. An unmistakable feeling of self expression, of independence, of the individual speaking and living in harmony with his fellow men. This is a feeling which can be communicated.

Jazz appreciation is not limited to social or economic groups. Jazz is for everybody, for everyone who will listen.

The scope of jazz has widened as it has spontaneously developed contrapuntal melodies. Jazz has an important story to tell; as such innovators as 'John Lewis, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and John "Dizzy" Gillespie'' have all given to its telling — a structure, an intellectual appeal rivaling its emotional impact. Their contributions have made jazz a rich and fertile music, exciting, alive and stimulating, to the mind as well as to the heart. The contributions to jazz did not stop With the aforementioned, but you Will find it to be ever increasing.

Young men and women are improvising, drawing from many sources, blending and putting into jazz something that was not there before...but never losing the source, the blues.

The young man today most qualified of the above mention is...Ramsey E. Lewis Jr. who was born in Chicago just 26 years ago. Ramsey has a background most musicians envy.

His studies started at the tender age of six. He continued to equip himself at De Paul University where he also became a student of the classics and thus the leader of the Ramsey Lewis Trio was born.

This trio (and I might add, is the most popular in the country today) consists of bass and cello player extraordinary, Eldee Young, who is also from Chicago.

The brilliant drummer, from Rosedale, Mississippi, raised in Chicago, is Isaac "Red" Holt. Three of the most brilliant minds ever applied to jazz.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio find themselves in a setting not familiar to some but one which find the group right at home, with the blues — and a little country feeling added for flavor.

Here, Ramsey has the assistance of strings and voices, under the leadership of Lew Douglas, and a very unique brass section lead by none other than Oliver Nelson. The "treatments" you will find to be indescribably beautiful. String and voices may lead you to believe that the group doesn't swing...quite the contrary...Ramsey is in full charge all the way and SWINGS. The group swings extra hard on "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It", making for smooth dancing and very commercial. Another highlight of the set is the trio's confession of "I Just Want To Make Love To You." The trio is into a great groove with Eldee on Cello and out front all the way.

This is Ramsey Louis utilizing Country and Blues, as a truly soulful music to underline a variety of musical situations as only Ramsey Lewis can do it, BEAUTIFUL.

Al Clarke
House Of Jazz
Radio WJMO
Cleveland, Ohio