Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 03/20/2007
On January 16 and 17, 1958 pianist
Ahmad Jamal, bassist
Israel Crosby and drummer
Vernell Fournier shared their elegant, intimate and supremely well-crafted
jazz with the audience at the
Pershing Lounge inside Chicago's Pershing Hotel, a venerable institution located on East 64th Street, west of South Cottage Grove Avenue. Nearly half-a-century later,
Gambit Records issued all 19 tracks from the Pershing engagements on one CD, bringing before the public a body of work that two generations of
jazz heads had gathered piecemeal on
Argo and
Chess LPs or various partial CD reissues. Tacked on to this historical edition is an edited version of
"Poinciana," released as a single after it became apparent that it had hit potential. A humorous moment occurred when the trio launched into a rapid rendition of
"Music Music Music," a
pop hit borrowed from perky
Teresa Brewer.
Ahmad Jamal transformed each familiar melody into a sculpted ritual of
improvisation, conducted with brilliant precision and immaculate ease. Even as this can and does occur in the controlled recording studio environment, when the artist performs in public, the magic might well magnify itself. Anyone who loves
jazz or wants to understand it more clearly should really make an effort to hear this music played live, and pursue the best recorded examples of
jazz performed in front of living, breathing audiences. Examples that spring to mind are
Willie "The Lion" Smith Live at Blues Alley,
Louis Armstrong at
Town Hall,
Billie Holiday at
Storyville,
Duke Ellington at
Newport,
Yusef Lateef Live at Pep's,
Sonny Rollins at
Montreux,
Charles Mingus Mingus at Antibes,
John Coltrane at
the Vanguard,
Miles Davis at
the Fillmore,
Lee Morgan Live at the Lighthouse and
Rahsaan Roland Kirk at
Keystone Korner. One essential addition needs to be made to that list: the music presented live in 1958 by the
Ahmad Jamal Trio at the
Pershing Lounge and the
Spotlite Club. All of
Jamal's recordings from these two engagements that are known to exist are now available from the
Gambit reissue label.
~arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
;)
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