Complete Live at the Pershing Lounge 1958 in Bloomington, MN

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
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
.
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
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
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
Storyville
Duke Ellington
Newport
Yusef Lateef
Live at Pep's
Sonny Rollins
Montreux
Charles Mingus
Mingus at Antibes
John Coltrane
the Vanguard
Miles Davis
the Fillmore
Lee Morgan
Live at the Lighthouse
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
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
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