Ahmad Jamal
piano
Pianist and trio leader from Pittsburgh; Barry says Miles Davis fell in love with Jamal’s little touches, and that this changed how Miles’s band played.
- mentions
- 5
- recordings
- 4
- Barry speaking
- 2
What Barry says
Barry says Miles Davis fell in love with the little things Ahmad Jamal did, and that this reshaped Miles’s band: Red Garland, who had played a certain way, suddenly started voicing chords way up high, and the group began to play in a straighter manner.
Believe: a talk to musicians46:5047:25Jazz schools and the basics4:31
In his own words
Red Garland played a certain way, all of a sudden he started playing chords way up high, because Miles sort of fell in love with [Ahmad] Jamal, little things that [Ahmad] Jamal did.
[Miles] fell in love with [Ahmad] Jamal and the little things that [Ahmad] Jamal did. All of a sudden they started playing real straight.
Every mention
5 moments in the recordings, 2 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Believe: a talk to musicians
- 47:25
Miles fell for Jamal’s little touches, so Red Garland began voicing chords high and the band played straighter.
Jazz schools and the basics
- 4:31
Short clip cut from the Almeria talk: Miles fell for Jamal’s little things, then the band played straight.
The Wonderful World of Barry Harris MOVIE (released Dec 15, 2020 on his 91st birthday)
- 6:41
A student
A singer in the Rome workshop film says working players, perhaps Jamal (caption ‘Amma, Jamal’), took Barry’s class.
Jazz GUITAR Reflections on BARRY HARRIS
In the interviews and notes
Tom Cleary says Barry’s 1960 trio album At the Jazz Workshop ignores the floating modal harmony that Jamal and Bill Evans pioneered, and lacks the detailed arrangements of Jamal’s trio of the time; it follows the Bud Powell trio model, centred on piano improvisation.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶10Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶11
A guitarist working through Alan Kingstone’s book on Barry’s method came upon a minor sixth chord resolving down a half step, and recognised it as a sound he had often heard in Ahmad Jamal’s playing.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.
- 0.3Rules matter more than scales; everything by logic1
- 1.4Triplets and thinking in six1
- 11.1Two hands together1
- 11.2Keep the left hand low and make it interesting1
- 12.2Know the song; learn many songs; find your key1
- 15.2Bebop, tradition, and what is wrong with jazz education1
- 2.2The two whole-tone scales (‘man and woman’)1
- 2.3The three diminished seventh chords (‘the children’)1