The Whole Music Experience

Jazz   Ahmad Jamal Saturday Morning   Jazz Village/Harmonia Mundi I enjoyed jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal’s 2012 New York Sessions, Blue Moon recording so when I saw that Jamal had another release coming up, Saturday Morning , I had to hear it.   Aptly titled, the French studio sessions feel like a warm and comfortable Saturday morning, with the dawn just breaking on the horizon.   Think of this CD as a musical cup of coffee without the side effects.   Even the titular track grabs attention with its ostinato and continuous theme played on the piano and surrounded by percussion with plenty of cymbal.   Listeners receive a double dose of this track since a reprise concludes the recording. The music sounds tight here played like a standard jazz trio of piano, double bass (Reginald Veal) and drums (Herlin Riley) but with extra percussion (Manolo Badrena) that provides the Latin groove.   Edith’s Cake features lyrical piano again surrounded by a bank of cymbals, deep ba