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

reviewed by nick nightingale 03/2017