Ahmad Jamal with the Assai Quartet

Ahmad Jamal with the Assai Quartet

Roesch Records RR0042

Ahmad Jamal (Piano)
Ephriam Wolfolk (Bass)
Arti Dixson Drums

Assai Quartet
Suzanne Lefevre (Viola)
Peter Biely (Violin)
Jaroslaw Lis (Violin)
Claude Giron (Cello)

Recorded at Morese Recital Hall, Sprague memorial Hall, Yale University (tracks 1-3), Horizon studios (4,5 & 10), and Jamal's house (6 to 9).

1 Temple Court
2 Comp Time
3 Feast
4 Patouche
5 A Short Piece
6 Pots En Verre - No. 1
7 Pots En Verre - No. 2
8 Pots En Verre - No. 3
9 Pots En Verre - No. 4
10 Everybody Knows

I think this is a remarkable album. It's unlike anything else in Jamal's distinguished discography. This makes it even stranger that this is currently OOP.

There are three different performances here. On the first five tracks Jamal's trio performs original integrated compositions with a string quartet, the next four are solo piano improvisations recorded in Jamal's living room, and the final piece is a ballad by producer David Mills with piano and violin. The first three tracks are live, while 4, 5 and 10 were studio recordings.

The tracks seem to have resulted from David Mills' notion that the virtuosity of European art music and jazz could be integrated. Mills teaches improvisation for string players at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT USA, and seems to have concocted the idea from his work here. Of course the idea of a clasical-jazz fusion has a long tradition, there was a whole Third Stream thing going on in the 1960s. Here, though, Mills took a classical string quartet made up of conservatoire students at Yale university and put them though some cultural training in African American and African-derived physicality and music from dancer Yaa Johnson and musicologist Richard Harper. He gave the quartet cool amplified instruments, made them improvise in rhythmic settings, and then put them into a live concert with Jamal's trio. There's a short PSB video documentary on this process here

The exuberance of all players is a pleasure to behold, and the music is genuine and unforced. A real joy.