Okay, so today I decided to finally sit down and tackle this “jamal of jazz crossword” I had lying around. Heard about it from a friend, said it was a good one, especially if you dig jazz music, which I kinda do. Not an expert, but I know a few names.
First thing, I grabbed the newspaper printout – yeah, I still like doing them on paper. Got my trusty pencil, the one with a decent eraser because, let’s be real, I knew I’d need it. Poured myself a cup of coffee too, gotta have fuel for the brain work, right?
Getting Started – The Easy Bits
So I scanned the clues first. Like always, I looked for the fill-in-the-blanks or the really short words. Those are usually my way in. Found a few gimmes right off the bat. Stuff like “ELLA Fitzgerald” or “Kind of BLUE“. The jazz theme definitely helped there. There were a couple related to Ahmad Jamal, which made the title make sense. Filled those in quickly, felt pretty good about the start.
- Got the obvious jazz legends.
- Nailed some three-letter words.
- Felt like I was making good progress initially.
Hitting the Wall
Then, maybe fifteen minutes in, I hit the usual roadblock. You know how it goes. Staring at a section, usually where a bunch of answers cross, and just… nothing. Blank. My brain just wasn’t making the connections. There was this one long clue, something about a specific Jamal track maybe, and I just couldn’t dredge it up. And that held up like three other answers crossing it.
Tried guessing based on the letters I had, but nothing fit quite right. Reread the clues over and over. Sometimes I find if I read it differently, it clicks, but not this time. The coffee wasn’t helping anymore, just making me jittery.
Taking a Step Back
I remembered something I read ages ago – if you’re stuck, walk away. So, I did. Put the paper down, went and did the dishes I’d been ignoring. Just totally switched off from the puzzle. Didn’t think about clues or letters or jazz pianists. Just focused on scrubbing plates.
The Breakthrough
Came back about half an hour later. Picked up the pencil, looked at that tricky section again. And boom! Like magic, one of the crossing words suddenly made sense. It wasn’t even the long one I was stuck on, but a shorter down clue. Once I got that, it gave me a new letter for the long answer. And just like that, the long answer clicked! It was ‘Poinciana’, a classic Ahmad Jamal piece. How did I miss that before?
That was the key! Suddenly, the whole corner opened up. The other crossing words fell into place one after another. It’s funny how stepping away does that. Your brain keeps working on it in the background, I guess.
Finishing Up
After that big breakthrough, the rest was smoother sailing. Still had a few tricky spots, some wordplay clues that took a minute to figure out. But I worked through them steadily. Used the eraser plenty, tried a few things that didn’t work, but eventually got there. Filling in that last square felt great. Always does.
So yeah, that was my little adventure with the jamal of jazz crossword today. A bit of a struggle, a necessary break, and finally, the sweet victory. Good puzzle, definitely tested my jazz knowledge (or lack thereof!). Now, time for more coffee.
