Ahmad Jamal - Ahmad Jamal's Three Strings: The Complete OKEH, PARROTT & EPIC Sessions 1951-1955 / 2CD set

"Ahmad Jamal always had an original style on piano. During an era when many young pianists emulated Bud Powell and filled their solos with rapid single-note lines, Jamal’s use of space for dramatic effect was something much different. His “less is more” approach inspired Miles Davis (who urged Red Garland to play in a similar style), his close interplay with his sidemen by the mid-1950s predated Bill Evans, and his recordings do not sound at all dated 70 years later.

While Jamal’s trio with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier during 1957-62 set the standard for his music, they were not his first group to record. The pianist had been a member of violinist Joe Kennedy’s Four Strings in 1948 which also included guitarist Ray Crawford and bassist Tommy Sowell. The group broke up in late 1949 and in 1951 Jamal called his new band The Three Strings. It initially included Crawford and Sowell before Eddie Calhoun took over on bass. The band’s individual identity included Crawford occasionally hitting his hand on the guitar to emulate a bongo, a sound that Herb Ellis would soon utilize with the Oscar Peterson Trio.

The piano-guitar-bass trio recorded eight songs with Calhoun during 1951-52, one four-song session with bassist Richard Davis in 1954, and 25 selections with Israel Crosby in 1955. After that, when Crawford departed, Jamal replaced the guitar with drums and it became known as the Ahmal Jamal Trio.

All of the pianist’s recordings in his trio with guitar are on this imported two-CD set. Jamal’s style is quite recognizable from the start even though it took a few years of struggle for him to build up his audience. Among the highlights are his versions of several songs that he would rerecord with his drums trio a few years later (including his hit “Poinciana”), quite a few numbers that Miles Davis would add to his repertoire (“The Surrey With The Fringe On Top,” “Will You Still Be Mine,” “A Gal In Calico,” “New Rhumba," “Billy Boy,” “All Of You,” “I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed,” “Old Devil Moon,” and “Autumn Leaves”) plus such gems as “Perfidia,” “Slaughter On 10th Avenue,” and “Pavanne.” The latter, an adaptation of Morton Gould’s classical piece, has a section that briefly includes what would become the melody (and chord change) of Davis’ “So What” which would not be “composed” for another 3½ years.

This perfectly compiled two-CD box set, in addition to all of the recordings that¡ Ahmad Jamal made before he turned 26, has a definitive 24-page booklet about the group written by label head Jordi Pujol.  The Fresh Sound set is highly recommended."

—Scott Yanow (October, 2022)
Los Angeles Jazz Scene