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University of Illinois UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AUGUST ...... |9.87 THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY .......AHDBEW...NICQLL..AQNKW...................................................................................................... en titled ............................................................................................................................................ IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF..MCmeR...Qf.MS.IC..................................................................... ...... ..................................... Inatructor in Ckitrfi Amovn>: HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OFJRI&LC 0*IH4 THE MUSIC OF AHMAD JAMAL FROM 1951 TO 1961 BY ANDREW NICOLL AQNEW THESIS for the DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN MUSIC Collage of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Illinois Urbane, Illinois 1987 Acknowledgments There were many people who helped me through the long and sometimes discouraging process of writing a thesis, and they deserve to be mentioned for their contributions to this project. I would first like to thank my advisor, Larry Oushee, whose demanding but realistic standards were invaluable to me in my inexperience. Next, I recognise Nark Stryker, whose helpful suggestions and general wisdom steered me around countless obstacles. Also greatly appreciated were conversations with other members of the Champaign-Urbana music 'scene,' especially Lawrence Hobgood. Thanks to Andrea Larson for her support and patience, and to my family for their encouragement t f a a afar. Also, tribute is due to Phyllis Stout who turned a mass of hieroglyphics into a thesis. Finally, I respectfully thank Ahmad Jamal whose music speaks for itself. iv Table of Contents Chapter Page 1 Historical Perspectives....................... 1 2 Biographical Information...................... 6 3 Analysis....................................... 13 1 ............................................. 13 II.................................... 33 4 Impact of Life on Music....................... 57 5 Criticism of Jamal's Music.................... 62 6 Other Trio Pianists........................... 70 7 Conclusion..................................... 75 Notes.................................................... 80 Bibliography.............. 84 Discography............................................ 87 Musical Examples and Transcriptions..................... 89 Musical Examples................... 90 Transcriptions......................................... 95 1 Chapter 1 Historical Perspective In 1958, a pianist named Ahmad Jamal, and his group, 'The Ahmad Jamal Trio,' drew wide recognition with the release of their album 'But Not For He' (Argo 628). While Jamal's approach to the piano-led trio was new and controversial, the ideal of a piano-led trio was taken for granted as a viable instrumentation for a jata group. This had not always been the case. As recently as the mid-1930s, the vast majority of jasz pianists either played unaccompanied, or were accompanists to one or many horn players. The first widely recognised piano-led trio was that of Nat cole in 1939, but this beginning was possible only because of certain developments in the style of Jass piano playing, and most of these developments oame out of the playing of Bari 'Fatha' Hines (1905-83). Though Hines rarely if ever led his own trio, his innovations in the use of each hand were a necessary step toward the viability of that instrumentation, with his left hand, Hines combated the rigid rhythmic and harmonic nature of stride piano. He "was capable ambidextrously of tying himself into the most baffling of rhythmic knots and of successfully extricating 1 himself every time." With his right hand, Hines played jjiui#WnPPPV 1 •. idiiwinPr • ftiilidIP * truMMfc ftfcvlA'TP*iip| 1 oativiiPPPPP./V W m W m ■ ppHJQRnPFPPPwli^FBFPprbittAuii PPdPPFPFjJ 2 projected so clearly over their surroundings, end because the lines that he played with them were contoured like those of a single line instrument, in general, Hines made it clear that the piano could maintain its soloistic presence even when accompanied by many other instruments. Toddy Wilson (1912-86) was also responsible for important developments connected with piano-led trio playing, though he, like Hines, was mainly an accompanist in the 1930s. The smaller sise of the ensembles Wilson played in led him to "lightening the early jass and swing 2 weightiness." His graceful style and lighter adaptation of Hines' horn-influenced lines is the forerunner to the best aspaets of 'aocktail' piano, or the general quality of restraint that is associated with many piano-led trios. In 1939, Mat Cole (1917-65) took many of the style characteristics of both Hines' and Wilson's playing, among other things, and put them in the context of the first well- known piano-led trio. Cole, who also sang, was accompanied by Oscar Moore on guitar and Wesley Prince on bass. The horn-like lines that he played in his right hand Were even more restrained than these of Wilson, Mid cole used this charming simplicity to set the tone of the trio, a tone that the young Ahmed Jamal appreciated greatly: "They were iMtctpicoii e Subtlety mi of that 3 . instrumentation." Also, in sonampesylmg Msere's solos, Cole played chords in "brief, syncopated bursts, a style 4 whioh eventually became known as comping," and which Jamal often utilized in his guitar trio. The popularity of this trio encouraged other pianists to try the same instrumentation, the most famous of these being Art Tatum (1910-56), who, in 1943, began a group with Tiny Grimes on guitar and Slam Stewart on bass. The nature of Tatum's already well-established solo piano style dictated that instead of subtlety and restraint, his trio would be more of a showcase for his own technical and musical mastery of the piano. So Cole and Tatum created two schools of guitar trio playing, and later trios of this instrumentation would draw from both. In the mid-forties, Irrol Garner (1921-77) began to lead his own trio regularly, but this trio featured drums instead of guitar. Considering Garner's left hand style of imitating the four-to-a-bar 'chunking' of a guitarist, the presence of a guitar would have been gratuitous. Garner developed a varied right hand orientation toward the pulse, soswthing that Nat Cole before had begun to explore. Both Cole and Garner could play "on top of the beat, right on the s beat, and behind the beat," and with Garner's rigid left hand pulse to contrast with his rhythmically 'loose1 right hand approach, the result is a provocative musioal tension. This tension is sosnthing that Ahmad Jewel mads oentral to 4 his approach, and this is probably ths main reason why Errol Qarnar is always cited as Jamal's main influence. By 1949, the renowned be bop pianist Bud Powell (1924- 1966) had moved solely to the trio-with-drums format (along with some solo performances), which began :he tradition of modern pianists moving to the trio setting for some of their most important work, even if they had been associated with horn players at different points in their career. Powell's superb trio playing also had the effect of eclipsing his contemporary, Errol Garner (who had also recorded with Charlie Parker), in terms of their influence on pianists of the fifties and sixties. Horace Silver, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris and Hank Jones (to name a few) followed in the Bud Powell tradition, while Brroll Garner's playing was absorbed by only a few younger pianists* mainly Ahmad Jamal, and possibly Bill Evans. Zn the early fifties both Ahmad Jamal (*51) and Oscar Peterson C52) started their own trios with guitar. Though Peterson's unit (with Ray Brown and different guitarists) was, in general, more 'flashy,' both trios emphasised the unified sound of the Nat Cole trio, more than the showcase quality of the Art Tatum trio. Jamal switched from guitar to drums in 1957, while Peterson switched in '59. Both seamed interested in tbs added freedsi and challenge that thf' ewlteh would oauas. ’Alii, by making the asflteh, they 5 were now in the prestigious company of Bud Powell, Phineas Newborn and a little later, Bill Evans and Ramsey Lewis. Jamal's switch from guitar to drums, and his subsequent rise to fame were two of the many events that marked the beginning of the 'Golden Years' of the modern piano trio. 6 Chapter 2 Biographical Information Fritz Jones (later Ahmad Jamal) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 2, 1930. His uncle apparently began Fritz's career as a pianist at the age of three: "He teased me and challenged me to play what he played, note for note. 1 I did. And I've been playing ever since." Jones began t formal training around the age of seven and was already playing Liszt etudes in competition at the age of eleven. His first teacher was Mary Caldwell Dawson, founder of the first black opera company in America. In his training, Jones and his fellow students concentrated on a wide range of music. "If we wanted to play Duke Ellington, we did. We considered Art Tatum (transcriptions) a study, just like 2 Bach or Beethoven." Before leaving Pittsburgh at the age of seventeen, he also studied with widely recognized pianist and teacher, James Hiller. During these years, while also attending Westinghouse High School, Jones spent nights playing and listening in the local Pittsburgh clubs. He was much admired on a local level, and at the age of fourteen, Art Tatum singled him out 3 as a "coming great." Along with jamming at the Musicians' Local 471, Jones spent many nights at Pittsburgh's 'Savoy' club listening to the big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie (1904-1984), and Earl Hines. He cites this as partly 7 responsible for the fact that he doesn't think in single 4 lines, but instead thinks in "big band concepts." Jones was probably also influenced by the styles of the pianists who led these bands, especially Basie, who was one of the few before him to explore the upper register in a light, sparse manner. It is also highly probable that Jones spent many hours during his high school years 'checking out' Art Tatum and Errol Garner, whether through live performance, record, or transcription.
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