Ahmad Jamal - Marseille / Blue Moon / 2CD set

'Marseille' review - This album features three very different versions of Jamal’s title track: the first a modal instrumental punctuated by meditative arpeggios; the second featuring declamatory poetry by rapper Abd Al Malik; the third a dazzling, coruscating ballad featuring singer Mina Agossi.

Elsewhere, there’s plenty of puckish wit: a jerky, Afro Cuban version of Autumn Leaves is interspersed with glancing references to other standards (including chunks of Oliver Nelson’s Stolen Moments), while the groove-based Baalbeck sounds like an acoustic take on the Temptations’ Papa Was a Rolling Stone. At once frisky, funny and funky as hell.

Blue Moon review - legendary jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal's love letter to his favorite Broadway, Hollywood, and Great American Songbook classics, Blue Moon, is arguably one of his most accomplished efforts since his Chess/Impulse! heyday.

The Pittsburgh virtuoso, once credited by Miles Davis as a major influence on his career, shows that age is no barrier to invention with six exquisite reworkings of postwar standards, from a romantic orchestral take on the title track to Otto Preminger's 1944 film Laura to a delicately whimsical interpretation of Charlie Parker's "Gypsy." Jamal's improvised cluster of chords remains as expressive and sprightly as ever, but it's when drummer Herlin Riley, who along with bassist Reginald Veal (Wynton Marsalis) and percussionist Manolo Badrena (Weather Report) form the backbone of the record, is allowed to let loose that they really spring to life, from the syncopated grooves of the epic 13-minute adaptation of A Life of Her Own's "Invitation," to the Latin rhythms on the title track and Dizzy Gillespie's "Woody'n You," to the surprisingly contemporary R&B beats of Golden Boy show tune "This Is the Life."

The simmering lounge pop of "Autumn Rain," the delicate "Morning Mist," and the tender solo "I Remember Italy," a Debussy-esque number inspired by his many travels, all of which are original compositions, are equally majestic. But it's his interpretative skills that ensure Blue Moon will go down as one of Jamal's modern greats.

Jon O'Brien ~ AllMusicGuide