Ahmad Jamal - "I Love Music"

When it comes to it, “Music is organized sound, but the organization has to involve some element of the unexpected or it is emotionally flat and robotic. The appreciation we have for music is intimately related to our ability to learn the underlying structure of music we like - the equivalent to grammar in spoken or signed languages - and to be able to make predictions about what will come next. Composers imbue music with emotion by knowing what our expectations are and then very deliberately controlling when those expectations will be met, and when they won’t. The thrills, chills, and tears we experience from music are the result of having our expectations artfully manipulated by a skilled composer and the musicians who interpret that music.” - Daniel J. Levitin. Using the term ‘appreciation’ perhaps understates the peoples’ more than passing affinity with music; I would say at its least there is love for it all the way to the extremes of obsession. Which segues to grand pianist Ahmad Jamal’s original song “I Love Music” off of his 1970 album entitled, “The Awakening”. Jamal, whose career dates back to the jazz hard-bop days of the 1950’s, demonstrates his continue evolution in his art form; crafting an amazing array of adventurous and imaginative lines on the Trio format record with Jamil Nasser on bass and Frank Gant on drums which culminates with the a priori song “I Love Music”. A track with impressive improvisation by Jamal; it has been sampled several times most notably by Nas “The World Is Yours” & Jeru Da Damaja “Me or The Papes”. The album is rounded out by four jazz standards; though the aforementioned song stands out. It’s safe to say about “I Love Music” that we all do. 

- J After Dark

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