At the Pershing: But Not for Me

Ahmad Jamal | Format: Audio Cassette

Product Details

• Audio Cassette (October 17, 1990)
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002O8W
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,369,009 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. But Not for Me

2. The Surrey With the Fringe on Top

3. Moonlight in Vermont

4. (Put Another Nickel In) Music! Music! Music!

5. No Greater Love

6. Poinciana

7. Woody 'N You

8. What's New?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars F. Scott Fitzgerald was born too soon., December 12, 2001

By 

Paul Dana (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Audio CD)

Fitzgerald once wrote that "in the dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning." Sadly, he never got to experience the rapture I felt as a 22-year old (back in the days when turntables were still powered by dinosaurs, Virginia) listening while, night after night beyond counting, the all-night DJ invariably slipped on Jamal's "Poinciana" as recorded live at Chicago's Pershing at precisely three o'clock.

Hypnotic, seductive, strangely enervating in the way Jamal bounced off of Fournier's tom-toms (which were especially tuned to this song), wound his riffs around Crosby's bassline and punched his way off the counterpoint of the live audience's response, "Poinciana" served, for me, as a wake-up call, a siren song, and, most importantly, as an introduction to an individual who is today one of the late 20th century's most undervalued jazz influences.

Modern critics tend to dismiss Ahmad Jamal's work as "cocktail music" (whatever that term truly means). Miles Davis, on the other hand (and not a man given to tossing off superlatives lightly), termed Jamal one of his "major influences" (to such an extent that he reportedly tried to persuade his then-pianist, Red Garland, to "play like this cat").

So . . . who you gonna believe?

Believe your own ears. You can't go wrong. Even if you never get beyond the mesmerizing voyage of "Poinciana" (a tune which Jamal had previously recorded and would re-record several more times, though never to such effect as here), you're ahead of the game; BUT, take my word for it, you'll be missing a whole world of wonder if you dismiss the rest of this album. With "But Not For Me," for example, Jamal creates voicings which Gershwin never dreamed possible (but which, I suspect, would have thrilled him). This is a situation which happens time after time, with each song on this outing. Even "What's New" (a staple of every jazz pianist's standard repertoire, mine included) turns out to have a whole lot new about it as Jamal makes the song indelibly his own. (I listen to some of his progressions on this number and bang my head against the wall, wondering "How'd he do THAT?")

There's a bit of a warning here: If you've not previously been exposed to Ahmad Jamal, this album may prove addictive. Ultimately, you may well find yourself out and about, haunting music stores as you search out that particularly elusive CD that he recorded way back when, working without drums, just a guitarist and . . .

But then, there are worse addictions, aren't there?

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discipline, July 8, 2005

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Audio CD)

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.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite albums, January 30, 2001

By 

Robert Richmond "Texas reader" (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Audio CD)

I first bought the vinyl in the early 60's and still have it but it is awfully worn. Bought the CD recently. I never tire of listening to Jamal. He came to San Antonio twice in recent years and on both occasions he played "Poinciana" and "But Nor For Me." Incidentally, according to Jamal, "But Not For Me" is his most requested tune. I can't imagine anyone listening to this mellow sound and not instantly liking it. I've liked it for 42 years.