Complete Collection: 1951-1959

American jazz pianist and composer Ahmed Jamal was born in July 1930. He began playing at the age of three, at seven he started lessons and at 14 he was playing professionally. At this point he was already recognized as a coming great by no less a talent than Art Tatum. Jamal began touring with George Hudson's Orchestra after graduating from High School in 1948 before moving to Chicago in 1950. He made his first records as 78 RPM discs in 1951 for the Okeh label with The Three Strings (later called the Ahmad Jamal Trio) alongside guitarist Ray Crawford and a succession of bassists. The Three Strings arranged an extended engagement at Chicago's Blue Note, but leapt to fame after performing at the Embers in New York where John Hammond saw the band play and signed them to Okeh. Jamal subsequently recorded for Parrot(1953-55) and Epic(1955) using the piano-guitar-bass lineup. The trio's sound changed significantly when Crawford was replaced with drummer Vernel Fournier in 1957, and the trio released the live album But Not for Me which stayed on the ten best-selling charts for 108 weeks and included Jamal's well known song Poinciana. This four disc compilation brings together all the music Ahmad Jamal released during his first seven years as a recording artist, covering the period 1951 - 1958. Including the sides he made for Okeh, his one album for Parrott, his earliest albums for Epic and several records made for Chess offshoot Argo. Trained in both traditional jazz and European classical style, Ahmad Jamal has been praised as one of the greatest jazz innovators. Following bebop greats like Parker and Gillespie, Jamal entered the world of jazz at a time when speed and virtuosic improvisation were central to the success of jazz musicians as artists. Jamal, however, took steps in the direction of a new movement, later coined cool jazz. He emphasized space and time in his musical compositions and interpretations instead of focusing on the blinding speed of bebop.