You nailed it. When I heard about his passing, I played “Live At The Pershing” for three days, still not finished with absorbing the treasures. Your analysis is adding to my searching. I love the spaces, things not played, on “But Not For Me”, and the move from 4 to 3 and back on “Moonlight....”. It really is perfection throughout the entire two CD album!
But Poinciana would not be what it is without its accompaniment of cutlery and waitresses. 8 minutes of supreme artistry, anyone? "Nah, I'm having the chicken".
I was only seven years old when this album came out, but it’s an earliest musical memory because it was on the shelves of (almost) every record collection in the Chicago area. Argo Records was a subsidiary of local indie giant Chess, and held sway with all the local radio stations no matter the format. Poinciana was a natural for crossover airplay because of its pulse and simplicity of melody. It leaves plenty of space for the listener to relax into. (So does “Kind of Blue” for that matter.) Anyway, the Chess brothers weren’t above greasing the wheels with a bit of cash to encourage spins, but the tune did most of the work. A hit is a hit, and Poinciana was heard as an oldie on Top 40 radio throughout my teenage years. Chicago jazz radio never stopped playing the whole Pershing album. With respect to his Pittsburgh origins, which run deep, we always thought of Ahmad as one of ours.
You nailed it. When I heard about his passing, I played “Live At The Pershing” for three days, still not finished with absorbing the treasures. Your analysis is adding to my searching. I love the spaces, things not played, on “But Not For Me”, and the move from 4 to 3 and back on “Moonlight....”. It really is perfection throughout the entire two CD album!
But Poinciana would not be what it is without its accompaniment of cutlery and waitresses. 8 minutes of supreme artistry, anyone? "Nah, I'm having the chicken".
I was only seven years old when this album came out, but it’s an earliest musical memory because it was on the shelves of (almost) every record collection in the Chicago area. Argo Records was a subsidiary of local indie giant Chess, and held sway with all the local radio stations no matter the format. Poinciana was a natural for crossover airplay because of its pulse and simplicity of melody. It leaves plenty of space for the listener to relax into. (So does “Kind of Blue” for that matter.) Anyway, the Chess brothers weren’t above greasing the wheels with a bit of cash to encourage spins, but the tune did most of the work. A hit is a hit, and Poinciana was heard as an oldie on Top 40 radio throughout my teenage years. Chicago jazz radio never stopped playing the whole Pershing album. With respect to his Pittsburgh origins, which run deep, we always thought of Ahmad as one of ours.