Great Jazz Albums (IMO) #36

Ahmad Jamal. Complete Live At The Pershing Lounge (2007; recorded in 1958).  Ahmad Jamal is one of the most influential and innovative jazz piano players.  As one jazz critic explained, "Jamal's manipulations of space and silence, tension and release, and dynamics all broke new ground, and had an impact far beyond Jamal's favored piano trio format."  According to A.B. Spellman, "Nobody except Thelonious Monk used space better, and nobody ever applied the artistic device of tension and release better. Nobody uses the extremities of the keyboard so much that you feel that his hands are going to fall off the piano."  In 1958, Jamal's trio, which included bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier, took up residence at the Pershing Hotel in Chicago, culminating in the recording of this classic album.  Complete Live At The Pershing Lounge includes the crossover hit "Poinciana," and its success led to some derision from some of the more purist jazz critics.  (The original record, Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing:  But Not For Me, consists of 8 tracks; Complete Live includes another 11 plus the single version of "Poinciana.")  Poinciana aside, the album includes some really great material, including But Not For Me, All The Things You Are and It Might As Well Be Spring.

[Related posts:  Great Jazz Albums  #1 (Hank Mobley), #2 (Horace Silver), #3 (Sonny Rollins), #4 (Sonny Clark), #5 (Dexter Gordon), #6 (Cannonball Adderley), #7 (Bill Evans), #8 (McCoy Tyner), #9 (Clifford Brown), #10 (Sinatra), #11 (Monk), #12 (Kenny Dorham), #13 (Coltrane), #14 (Duke Ellington), #15 (Miles Davis), #16 (Wayne Shorter), #17 (Dinah Washington); #18 (Sarah Vaughan); #19 (Stan Getz); #20 (Blue Mitchell); #21 (Gene Ammons); #22 (Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers); #23 (Red Garland); #24 (Ella Fitzgerald); #25 (Charlie Parker); #26 (Art Pepper); #27 (Bud Powell); #28 (John Hicks); #29 (Kenny Barron); #30 (Coleman Hawkins); #31 (Count Basie);  #32 (Benny Carter w/ Ben Webster and Barney Bigard); #33 (Chet Baker); #34 (Thad  Jones); #35 (The Great Jazz Trio)]