Sunday Music: Ahmad Jamal's "Poinciana"

Recorded live, at The Pershing in Chicago, in 1958, with Ahmad Jamal on piano, Israel Crosby on bass, and Vernel Fournier on drums, this version of “Poinciana” is one of my all-time favorites.

Part of it’s the way the drums go. The way they feel. The way you can finger tap to it on your desk or steering wheel, the way you can bop your head to it like it’s a golden-era hip-hop single, the way it can hypnotize you.

Another part of it is the way Jamal moves around on the piano itself. Sometimes he’s high. Sometimes he’s low. Sometimes it’s a single line of melody. Sometimes it’s a cluster of harmonized notes, or a passing cloud of complex chords.

The bass is there too, although a bit harder to hear on the recording unless you’re really focusing on it, but it’s the glue, and the anchor, and a key part of the enablement to Jamal’s left hand choices.

“Poinciana” is based on a Cuban folk song about a flowery plant. Nat Simon composed the edition Ahmad Jamal was playing here, and it itself has quite the history. It’s a weird composition. It’s longer than normal, which you’ll immediately sense when you play it the first time. In fact, if you didn’t already click play above, try this Bing Crosby version for a moment:

Not the rhythm in the Bing arrangement. The pulsing in the initial section. The balladic sweep of the next section, where the rhythm rises up slowly underneath while he croons.

The third section, the bridge has a beautiful dance to it, with new rhythmic accents. And then, the way Bing lands the melody into the repeat of the earlier section, the song comes back to it’s resting place.

Ahmad Jamal stretches all of this out. He also repeats, improvises, and tweaks all the sections accordingly. If you close your eyes, you can so easily get lost in it.

Jamal isn’t telling one story, he and the trio are telling stories here, see if you can catch them.

BONUS: I found this literal study of Ahmad Jamal’s piano work from Tony Winston, and it’s really, really cool too. Take a look if you’re curious.