Ahmad Jamal - Live at the Pershing - But Not For Me (1958)

Ahmad Jamal - Live at the Pershing - But Not For Me (1958)
MP3 / 320kbps / RS.com: 63mb / Cover
Genre: jazz, swing, mainstream

Say all you want about Ahmad's use of silence and "space," his defining quality is, above all, discipline. Whereas the conventional approach is to play the head in 2/4 after which the rhythm section is unleashed in 4/4 while the soloist rips through a chord sequence, Ahmad is reluctant to leave either the song or the two-beat feel of the opening chorus. Instead, he comes back to the original melody again and again, converting it into a "riff" with slight alterations for every subsequent chorus. And when he does release the rhythm section or improvise for a whole chorus over a walking bass line, the effect is explosive.

Numerous musicians have used the device of riff-like repetition (listen to Paul Gonsalves' celebrated solo on "Ellington at Newport"), but few do so with as much respect for the original melody and close attention to the finest details of construction and contouring as Jamal. For him a song is not merely a chord sequence for improvisation but a tone poem or even miniature symphony awaiting the artist's realization through imaginative revisioning. And his "touch" is inimitable, as pianists who have copied his every chorus with less success (listen to Michel Camilo's attempt to play Ahmad's version of "Poinciana") have discovered.

In short, Ahmad is that enviable and rare oxymoron, the "popular" artist. He serves up all the melody a jazz-challenged listener could ask for while satisfying the artistic demands of the fastidious jazz-piano aficioniano. If the guy has never regained the popularity he enjoyed with "But Not for Me," the fault is not his but that of a public that's lost touch with the supreme melodies that comprise the American Songbook. - reviewer Samuel Chell

Tracks:
1. But Not For Me
2. Surrey With The Fringe On Top
3. Moonlight In Vermont
4. Put Another Nickel In Music Music Music
5. There Is No Greater Love
6. Poinciana
7. Woody ‘n’ You
8. What’s New

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