Customer Reviews

Poinciana

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As Miles Davis tells in his autobiography, Jamal's approach to jazz deeply influenced him. This recordings with a drumless trio, featuring Ray Crawford on guitar, show an incredible level of interplay and a carefully balanced alternation between arranged and improvised passages. There is a lot of virtuosity, but it is always functional to the mood and swing of the songs, many of which were later rendered by the famous quintet of Miles Davis with John Coltrane. It is also a kind of classical feeling in the clean touch of Jamal, that turns the music easy to listen in spite of its deepness.

Unless you like editied and shortened versions of live works, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS CD!

All I need to say is this - on this CD "Poinciana" is 2:56 long and is a recording that Jamal made at the Pershing in Chicago in 1958. However, the real recording is 8:11 long! The people who produced this CD cut out nearly 2/3 of the original recording - and did it in a sloppy manner to boot. It's worse than watching a movie on AMC or TBS/TNT!

Please don't tarnish the work of one of the greatest jazz musicians ever buy giving your money to these people. There are plenty of other Ahmad Jamal CDs available that are high quality and have complete versions of wonderful original recordings.

Ahmad Jamal's early music was immensely tuneful and rhythmic, a treat for jazz lovers, and easy for jazz newcomers to tap their toes to and hum along. It's infectious, upbeat and at the same time compelling and involving. Miles Davis was a fan, who "liked the the level of excitement that Ahmad Jamal achieved without being obvious." Jamal can play as fast as anyone, but chooses to restrain himself and use only what works to get the listener involved. Jamal was at his best performing live, and this record is a good example of that. When you listen to this mature, confident, brilliant and accomplished pianist, it's hard to believe that he was only 25 when the record was made! This is the kind of CD that you can't go wrong with: Great tunes, great melody, mellow but lively sound, and rewarding to many repeated listens. I love it. Once you're hooked on this album, pick up The Ahmad Jamal Trio, with songs like Perfidia, Rica Pulpa and others, at least as tuneful and gently rhythmical as this. They're both no-lose propositions. Great, enjoyable, intelligent and swinging music.

Sound quality is poor, distant, lacking any stage or presence. Also dissapointed with the version of Poinciana, mostly guitar by soemone I never heard of, and was not mentioned in the liner notes. Overall, a miss sonically and in the packaging.

Contrary to the comments about sound quality, this is one of the finest Jazz albums ever. You WILL play the title track over and over again. It is also a great romantic atmosphere album.

This is NOT original the version from the Chess Record album pictured. It's mostly guitar rather than the original trio and a poor recording. Should have previewed it first...

Once again I am convinced it is difficult to digitize these older recordings. I once read that there was not enough data written down about the recording conditions to capture the true sounds off the analog tape masters. That is the case with this CD. It does not have the depth of my LP version of Poiciana which I bought the first year released. In particular the piano was very difficult to record then and it turns out "weak" in this redo.

I discovered this CD in my collection one day. I didn't know where it came from; it may have been a gift from someone. I was familiar with Jamal's name but not his music.

It was serendipity, a real 1950s word. This lovely, lyrical album from the cool jazz era belongs in every jazz lover's collection. Miles Davis said Jamal taught him about the use of silences; I wouldn't know about that but this album has both popular and artistic appeal, melodious enough for the casual listener and subtle enough for the more discerning one. I'm going on to explore Jamal's music further.

...and the recording quality it not too good