Two New Recordings by Two Jazz Greats

The pianist Ahmad Jamal, one of the most influential—and simply one of the best—of all jazz musicians, is playing and recording with undiminished vitality at the age of eighty-six. The evidence is in his new album, “Marseille,” which is available digitally this Friday. One thing has stayed consistent in his sixty-five years, to date, of recording: though he’s a pianist and has (with only a few exceptions) led small groups, trios, and quartets that are centered on his own playing, he has always led those small groups with an expressive precision of arrangement more likely to be found in a big band. Though he’s also one of the era’s most original soloists, his improvisational styles and ideas are inseparable from his group concept, and both get a vigorous renewal on the new album.