Ahmad Jamal - Don’t Blame Me (1955)

From jazz critic Nat Hentoff’s liner notes to Ahmad Jamal’s The Legendary Okeh & Epic Sessions, quoted in the excellent “Take the A Train” blog:

A few years ago Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal’s most influential champion, reacted indignantly to my mumbled opinion that Ahmad Jamal was “mainly a cocktail pianist.” Miles, who had brought all the records Ahmad had made up to that time, began playing them, pointing out to this skeptical listener those elements of Jamal’s playing that so intrigued him and that have since helped make Jamal a major force in the jazz record market and an increasingly powerful lure in personal appearances.

“Listen,” Miles said then and later in an interview for The Jazz Review, “to the way Jamal uses space. He lets it go so that you can feel the rhythm section and the rhythm section can feel you. It’s not crowded.

Compare this side-by-side with Monk’s version to hear two discrete universes of sound conception.

Ahmad Jamal - Woody’n You (1958)

Jeezum crow.

Edmond Hall Celeste Quartet - Profoundly Blue (1941)

This is Charlie Christian’s only recorded appearance on acoustic guitar. Meade “Lux” Lewis wails on the celesta, and Israel Crosby—who later found a home with Ahmad Jamal and his groundbreaking trio—provides the bass in support of this Edmond Hall gem.

Edmond Hall Celeste Quartet- Jammin’ In Four (1941)

In the end no words do this justice, either.

[left to right: Meade “Lux” Lewis on celeste, Edmond Hall on clarinet, Israel Crosby on bass, and Charlie Christian, in his only recorded appearance on acoustic guitar.]

Duke Pearson - For All We Know (1960)

From the liners:

The June 1960 Duke Pearson session did not produce spectacular music, but it is interesting in two respects. We get to hear Blue Note’s present (Ike Quebec) and future (Duke) A & R men playing together, and we hear the Israel Crosby/Vernell Fournier team that had contributed so much to Ahmad Jamal’s trio and George Shearing’s group in a new context. A young, precocious Crosby had first recorded for Blue Note with Edmond Hall, Meade Lux Lewis and Charlie Christian in 1941. — Michael Cuscuna

This could not sound better.

Ahmad Jamal - Rica Pulpa (1955)

No words can do this justice, including these.

Ahmad Jamal - Cheek to Cheek (1958)

Recorded live at The Spotlite Club in Washington DC on September 6, 1958.

Ahmad Jamal - Squeeze Me (1955)

Goodness gracious.

Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana (1958)

The undisputed, definitive version of Poinciana on display here (which just happens to be live) has inspired countless imitators over the years, but nothing will ever sound quite as good as this.

(Compare it to an earlier version to experience the full effect of his musical witchcraft.)

Ahmad Jamal - Moonlight in Vermont (1958)

When I bought this LP on my father’s suggestion years ago, it single-handedly reawakened my ears to the possibilities of jazz music. There’s so much space on display here, so much taste involved in the selection of every note, and so little pretense. Immortal.