Music Monday: Bill Evans, [Ahmed], and Ahmed Abdul-Malik

I had a hectic week of travel and I’m beyond happy to be home for Thanksgiving. Traditionally, I pick a box set or an extended version of an album to enjoy while prepping the smoker, smoking the turkey, and getting some reading and grading done. Last year and in 2021 I live blogged my Thanksgiving morning. Not quite a tradition, but two point make a line and all that.

I don’t have much of a music plan for this Thanksgiving, but maybe Keith Jarrett’s At the Blue Note or the Miles and Coltrane Columbia Recordings box (but maybe Larry Young’s Blue Note box that I’d have to recreate because it is not available on my streaming service).

This week I’ll enjoy three albums — two new and one older. 

First, I was interested to listen to the newly remastered versions of Bill Evans Riverside studio recordings: Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings (Remastered 2025). There’s some talk about process used to remaster these recordings and so on. And these recordings have been released (and remastered) numerous times in the past. 

My take: these sound good. Are they worth the $135 on vinyl? No idea. $30 for a high resolution download doesn’t seem too dear to me. They are not posted to Youtube yet, so I can’t provide a link to them, but I’ll include below a link to the 1984 box set the brought all of Evans’ Riverside recordings together for the first time:

I am generally interested in hearing the latest releases from أحمد [Ahmed]. In fact, last Thanksgiving I enjoyed Giant Beauty.  [Ahmed]’s latest album (and I believe first studio album) is called سماع [Sama’a] (Audition) and is a reimagining of Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s debut album as band leader Jazz Sahara (1958). 

I’ve posted both albums below:

More music and commentary (for whatever that is worth) on Thursday, I think!