Ahmad Jamal - At The Pershing And Other Live Recordings 1958-59 (2020)

Ahmad Jamal is a modern jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in 1930, who has been active in the genre for 70 years. A Pittsburgh native, he started playing professionally in the mid-1940s at the age of 14 and was hailed by Art Tatum even at that stage of his life as “a coming great”. He converted to Islam in 1950 and formed his first trio in 1951, developing a minimalist, spacious style admired by the likes of Miles Davis, with his music prompting reviewer John Morthland to write that: “If you're looking for an argument that pleasurable mainstream art can assume radical status at the same time, Jamal is your guide”. By the mid-50s his recordings and performances had firmly established him on the scene, and during 1958 and 1959 his trio did a series of recorded ‘live’ performances which included the “At the Pershing: But Not for Me” LP, which was a big commercial success and the most highly-regarded and critically acclaimed album of his career, cementing his place in the jazz pantheon. This great-value 57-track 3-CD set comprises recordings from The Pershing Lounge, Chicago in January 1958, The Spotlite Club in Washington DC in September 1958, Nola’s Penthouse Studio, New York, in February 1959 and the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1959. These recordings represent the complete contents of the albums “At The Pershing: But Not For Me”, “At The Pershing Vol. 2”, “Ahmad Jamal Trio Volume IV”, “Portfolio Of Ahmad Jamal” and “Jamal At The Penthouse”, along with selected titles from the Newport performance. It’s an entertaining collection of some of his most renowned recordings, and a great showcase for a highly distinctive jazz stylist.