Ahmad Jamal - Macanudo

In the 1960's record companies began to get gimmicky jumping on trends and trying different ideas to sell music.  One of them was to record jazz musicians with studio orchestras to varying degrees of success.  Paul Desmond's Desmond Blue is a good example of this and I talked about it here.  Others jumped on the exotica bandwagon that was popular back then. Ahmad Jamal's Macanudo fits squarely into both trends.  Recorded in December 1962 at Rudy Van Gelder's Studio for Cadet, the record featured a nameless studio orchestra with Art Davis on bass and Richard Evans as the composer, arranger, conductor, and arranger..  

The idea for this record came out of Evans' participation in then-President Kennedy's cultural exchange program which took Evans took a number of countries in South America.  The result is eight "tone paintings" of eight South American cities (actually six), all composed and arranged by Evans.  As someone else pointed out, this record is basically a Richard Evans solo record with Ahmad Jamal as the guest soloist.

Around this time, Jamal had disbanded his successful trio with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier and was just starting a three year break from the music business.  Neither Crosby or Vernell are on this record and I am guessing that Jamal recorded this album as a contractual obligation for Argo.  Jamal is very much a small group player and he seems to thrive on the sparse sound of the trio, so hearing him in this large group setting feels inconsistent for Jamal.  He does not really sound like himself, leaving space for others and playing very creatively with texture.  Instead, he is merely a pawn in the grand scheme of things and seems to feel rushed to get his ideas across, with more instances of flashy, speedy playing than any other Jamal record I've heard.  On his classic records like Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not For Me and The Awakening, he gets full control of his solo space and setting and uses it to great effect, using space for tension, while widely varying his texture, range, and approach.  On Macanudo, an album aimed at the growing easy listening market, Jamal is more of an afterthought---his piano is low in the mix and, at times, buried beneath the rest of the band. 

Richard Evans (1932-2014) was a bassist, arranger, producer best known for his work with the Cadet label.  Born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in Chicago, Evans got his start playing his local musicians and spending one month with Sun Ra before working with Cadet as an arranger from around 1959.  

Cadet was actually the new name of the Argo label, a jazz off-shoot of the famed blues label Chess records run by brothers Phil and Leonard Chess.  Created in 1955, Argo's recordings included a mix of established stars such as Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Max Roach, Illinois Jacquet, James Moody, Lou Donaldson and others with such local talent as Ahmad Jamal, Ramsey Lewis, and Johnny Griffin. In 1965, the label became Cadet and by the end of the decade would produce of the most memorable recordings of soul, jazz, and psychedelia on records by harpist Dorothy Ashby, the Soulful Strings, Ramsey Lewis's Maiden Voyage, and others.  Richard Evans, by this time, along with arranger and producer Charles Stepney, contributed as head arranger and producer.  Long forgotten, this music later became highly sought after by DJs interested in the expansive sound heard on these records.  But on Macanudo, it seems as Evans had a chance to prove himself to be an important member of the Cadet team.  

The other trend this album fits into was the Bossa craze that was exploding at this time.  Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd's album Jazz Samba had appeared in 1962 with a hit single "Desafinado", leading to a big bossa fad with other Bossa nova-themed albums by Cannonball Adderley, Paul Winter, and Bob Brookmeyer with both Getz and Byrd individually recording their own Bossa albums that year.  Macanudo stands out as it incorporates music from other countries in South America including Uruguay, Argentina, and Colombia, along with Panama and Haiti---the latter two countries of course are not a part of South America, but was probably considered exotic and 'close enough' to be included in 1962.  Today, such ignorance would not be abused but at the time, pre-internet and before air travel was easy and affordable, those countries were likely considered exotic and foreign enough for listeners who didn't know or wouldn't keep track.  

 

The music of Brazil is represented by two bossa-ish pieces "Sugar Loaf at Twilight" and "Bossa Nova Do Marilla" and the samba "Belo Horizonte".  These pieces are highlights with the melancholy sound of Bossa permeating through the compositions and chord progressions.  "Bossa Nova Do Marilla" has interesting color tones, enhancing the contemplative mood.  Modal and John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" was also influential and that can be heard on "Bogota" named after Colombia's capitol which makes use of a modal vamp alternating with chord changes.  In 6/4 time, the tune metrically modulates to swinging 4/4 for Jamal's solo before ending in the original meter.  The three-against-two time feel is continued on "Haitian Marketplace", a modal minor blues.  In 1964, a live version from his new trio would be released. "Carnival in Panama" is a dance number with a joyous mood. "Buenos Aires", a swinging number, has a nice, mysterious mood helped some Oliver Nelson-is voicing in the saxophones.  

Overall, I feel Richard Evans's compositions are most successful in creating different moods. The compositions aren't always that memorable, not fault of his own as sometimes the head is only played once, but altogether it makes for a decent listen.  Also it seems clear that Argo was jumping on the studio orchestra sound (with latin percussion prominently on display) that would dominate "pop-jazz" and that would eventually become easy listening.  Even though it has Jamal's name on it, Richard Evans dominates and it helps to understand that this was a commercial record (look at the cover!).  Jamal does take some nice solos, but that's not the point of this record.