Ahmad Jamal is to release his first album since Blue Moon, the pianist has just confirmed. “Saturday Morning has been a special project from day one,” the pianist has commented, and it’s looking like a late-September release for Saturday Morning to be released by the French Jazz Village label, an imprint Jamal got off to a flying start with the release of his acclaimed Blue Moon set last year.

The cover of Saturday Morning

Most recently in the UK for a well received Barbican concert hall appearance the great pianist has reportedly selected material by Duke Ellington and Horace Silver for the album although there are no more details so far, although it’s thought Jamal is joined on Saturday Morning by the Blue Moon rhythm team: bassist Reginald Veal, the New Orleansian Herlin Riley on drums and former-Weather Report percussionist Manolo Badrena although this is unconfirmed. Recorded in La Buissonne studio in the south eastern French town of Pernes-les-Fontaines Jamal appears at the Vienne and Marciac festivals in France later this summer shortly after celebrating his 83rd birthday in July. SG