Description
Ahmad Jamal Trio: The Awakening (Verve By Request Series 180g) Vinyl LP
Ahmad Jamal Trio is Ahmad Jamal on piano, Jamil Nasser on bass and the monster Frank Gant on drums. On what is perhaps the finest post-bop, pre-fusion jazz record of all time, the trio tear through standards by Herbie Hancock (“Dolphin Dance”) and Antonio Carlos Jobim (“Wave”), a few of Jamal’s own compositions (“The Awakening”, “Patterns”), and a roaring rendition of Emil Boyd and Hale Smith’s “I Love Music”. The Awakening is equally revered in hip-hop and jazz circles, having been sampled on certified classics by Nas, Common, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Gang Starr and Jeru The Damaja, and more recently on Steven Julien a.k.a. Funkineven’s “XL”. Original copies (even reissues) are outrageously impossible to find; I like to imagine all the golden era producers in the 90s conspiring to buy them all up, lock them in a secret bunker buried 2,000 feet below Queensbridge and throw away the key. 180 gram reissue cut at Third Man Pressing in Detroit from a newly remastered transfer. Recommended.
- 180g black vinyl pressing
- Verve By Request edition pressed at Third Man Pressing in Detroit
- newly remastered
- housed in gatefold sleeve w/ liner notes
- featuring Ahmad Jamal (p), Jamil Nasser (b), Frank Gant (d)
- original release year: 1970
- music label: Impulse! 2023
