Live at Bubba's '80 (Remastered) Ahmad Jamal

• 1 Waltz for Debby 06:24
• 2 Folks Who Live on the Hill 05:42
• 3 People 05:34
• 4 Baia 08:40
• 5 The Good Life 04:41
• 6 Autumn in New York 05:19
• 7 I've Never Been In Love Before 02:50
• Total Runtime 39:10

Info for Live at Bubba's '80 (Remastered)

When listening to an artist such as Ahmad Jamal, you must try to understand the many facets of the individual, and then further understand what is going on inside his head and heart at the time of the given performance. Only then can you appreciate the emotional content that finds its way from an artist, through the music, to the audience. When we decided to record Ahmad Jamal Live at Bubba's on March 20, 1980, Ahmad was reluctant to do so due to some personal problems. At it turned out, whatever it was that was on his mind, added a dimension to his music never before captured on record.

Ahmad performed an evening of emotions instilled into some of the most beautiful music ever recorded by any pianist. In "People" and "Folks Who Live on the Hill" his feelings come through with a diversity of technique, exposing the inner Jamal. When he performs the Bill Evans tune, "Waltz for Debbie," you feel the love and respect Ahmad had for Bill. He treats the song as a tribute to an artist and expresses a multitude of feelings for the man.

After hearing the album, you will have shared a side of Ahmad Jamal that very few have heard, and become one of the privileged few who can say, "I heard Ahmad Jamal."

„Although Ahmad Jamal's recording career was erratic at this period, his live performances were as good as his earlier work. Teamed up with bassist Sabu Adeyola and drummer Payton Crossley, Jamal interprets a diverse program highlighted by "Waltz for Debbie" and "I've Never Been In Love Before," although recording "People" was probably a mistake.“ (Scott Yanow, AMG)

Ahmad Jamal, piano
Sabu Adeyola, bass
Payton Crossley, drum

Recorded March 20, 1980 at Bubba's, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Produced by Robert Shelley

Digitally remastered

Ahmad Jamal
Celebrated pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal continues his performance schedule around the world, as he has for well over the last four decades. Noted for his outstanding technical command and identifiable sound as a piano stylist, Mr. Jamal was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Considering his ensemble "an orchestra", Mr. Jamal not only achieves a unified sound, but subtly inserts independent roles for the bass and drums. The hallmarks of Mr. Jamal's style are rhythmic innovations, colorful harmonic perceptions, especially left hand harmonic and melodic figures, plus parallel and contrary motion lines in and out of chordal substitutions and alterations and pedal point ostinato interludes in tasteful dynamics. He also incorporates a unique sense of space in his music, and his musical concepts are exciting without being loud in volume. Augmented by a selection of unusual standards and his own compositions, Mr. Jamal would notably impress and influence, among others, trumpeter Miles Davis.

In 1994, Mr. Jamal received the American Jazz Masters fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The same year he was named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University, where he performed commissioned works with the Assai String Quartet. In 2007 the French Government inducted Mr. Jamal into the prestigious Order of the Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, naming him Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Mr. Jamal’s previous recording A Quiet Time (Dreyfus Records), released in January 2010, was the number #1 CD on jazz radio for the year 2010 and continues to soar. Also this year the French Jazz Academy has voted "The Complete Ahmad Jamal Trio Argo Sessions 1956-1962" released by Mosaïc "Best reissue of the year with outstanding research work". His music remains, youthful, fresh, imaginative and always influential.

In December of 2011 Mr. Jamal was awarded with DownBeat’s 76th Reader’s Poll Hall of Fame. Mr. Jamal’s latest album Blue Moon which debuted in February opened to a sold out performance at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.

This album contains no booklet.