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ahmad jamal
label made its play for the commercial market,
Oscar Peterson joined their ranks. All
had risen to major record companies and
large audiences from smaller jazz labels,
where they had paid their dues with the
cognescenti.
For Jamal, though, it all seemed to work
in reverse. He started at the top—Okeh and
Epic, both imprints of Columbia—put out a
few singles and an album that went nowhere,
and then worked his way down to achieve
remarkable fame on an obscure label. Along
the way through the mid-’50s, with a wife
and daughter, he scuffled. He went east in
search of work for his trio but found none;
then came back to Chicago, replaced guitarist
Ray Crawford with dummer Vernel
Fournier, and found a steady gig leading the
house trio at the Pershing Lounge, a modest
hangout off the lobby of the slightly shabby
Pershing Hotel. The pay was $300 a week—
for the whole trio. Only when he went with
Argo, a tiny South Side Chicago label with
almost no jazz catalog or promotional budget,
did he take off. In 1958, At The Pershing:
But Not For Me made Jamal the talk of the
jazz world and took up a long-term lease on
the Billboard album charts for more than two
years. Suddenly he was an overnight success.
“It wasn’t so sudden,” he laughs today,
reflecting on his perspective. “We’d been
recording for seven years. First for Okeh,
then Epic in 1955, then to Al Benson’s Parrot
label, and those masters were bought by
Leonard Chess. Finally to Argo. Yes, I had
a meteoric rise.”
For a jazz musician who had once been
with Columbia, Argo seemed like the last
stop on a steep slide to oblivion. The label
was a sister brand to Chess Records, which
was far more interested in selling Bo Diddley,
Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters to the
swelling rock’n’roll market than in marketing
a shy and thoughful young jazz musician
to a cultish niche of beatniks.
And if Argo was a long shot, don’t even
mention “Poinciana.” Jamal’s hypnotic version
of the traditional Spanish melody that
Bing Crosby had Anglicized onto the Hit
Parade in 1943–’44 became as close to a hit
record as any jazz musician could ever hope
to have. “It made the jazz division of Chess,”
Jamal says without false modesty, “and
changed my life.” The change came quickly.
In 1956 he might do an occasional press
interview in his small room in Chicago’s
Sutherland Hotel. A few years later the same
reporters pulled up to a massive 16-room
home he bought in 1960 in the vicinity of the
University of Chicago. His fees went from
$300 a week to $3,000, according to Time
magazine.
“It’s still changing my life,” he says
today. “I just got back from Istanbul, Turkey,
after doing 16 concerts in Europe in July and
August. So it’s still changing my life. There
DownBeat Hall Of Fame
Legends in jazz, blues and beyond can be elected into the
DownBeat Hall of Fame by way of the annual Critics Poll
(designated by “C”), Readers Poll (“R”) or Veterans Committee
(“V”). It all started in 1952 with the Readers. The Critics
got into the game in 1961—50 years ago—and the Veterans
Committee began voting in 2008. With this month’s addition of
Ahmad Jamal, there are now 128 DownBeat Hall of Famers,
listed here in alphabetical order.
A–B
Muhal Richard Abrams (C 2010)
Cannonball Adderley (R 1975)
Louis Armstrong (R 1952)
Albert Ayler (C 1983)
Chet Baker (C 1989)
Count Basie (R 1958)
Sidney Bechet (C 1968)
Bix Beiderbecke (C 1962)
Ed Blackwell (C 1993)
Art Blakey (R 1981)
Jimmy Blanton (V 2008)
Lester Bowie (C 2000)
Michael Brecker (R 2007)
Clifford Brown (C 1972)
Ray Brown (R 2003)
Dave Brubeck (R 1994)
C–D
Harry Carney (V 2008)
Benny Carter (C 1977)
Betty Carter (C 1999)
John Carter (C 1991)
Paul Chambers (V 2011)
Charlie Christian (C 1966)
Kenny Clarke (C 1988)
Nat “King” Cole (R 1997)
Ornette Coleman (R 1969)
John Coltrane (R 1965)
Chick Corea (R 2010)
Tadd Dameron (V 2009)
Miles Davis (R 1962)
Paul Desmond (R 1977)
Baby Dodds (V 2010)
Johnny Dodds (C 1987)
Eric Dolphy (R 1964)
E–G
Billy Eckstine (V 2010)
Roy Eldridge (C 1971)
Duke Ellington (R 1956)
Bill Evans (C 1981)
Gil Evans (C 1986)
Maynard Ferguson (R 1992)
Ella Fitzgerald (R 1979)
Erroll Garner (V 2008)
Stan Getz (R 1986)
Dizzy Gillespie (R 1960)
Benny Goodman (R 1957)
Dexter Gordon (R 1980)
Stéphane Grappelli (R 1983)
H–J
Lionel Hampton (R 1987)
Herbie Hancock (R 2005)
Coleman Hawkins (C 1961)
Roy Haynes (C 2004)
Julius Hemphill (C 1995)
Fletcher Henderson (C 1973)
Joe Henderson (R 2001)
Jimi Hendrix (R 1970)
Woody Herman (R 1976)
Andrew Hill (C 2007)
Earl Hines (C 1965)
Milt Hinton (C 2001)
Johnny Hodges (C 1970)
Billie Holiday (R 1961)
Freddie Hubbard (R 2009)
Milt Jackson (R 1999)
Ahmad Jamal (R 2011)
Keith Jarrett (R 2008)
Antonio Carlos Jobim (R 2002)
James P. Johnson (C 1992)
J.J. Johnson (R 1995)
Elvin Jones (C 1998)
Hank Jones (C 2009)
Jo Jones (V 2008)
Philly Joe Jones (V 2010)
Thad Jones (C 1987)
K–M
Stan Kenton (R 1954)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (C 1978)
Gene Krupa (R 1972)
Steve Lacy (C 2005)
John Lewis (C 2002)
Abbey Lincoln (C 2011)
Jimmie Lunceford (V 2008)
Jackie McLean (C 2006)
Glenn Miller (R 1953)
Charles Mingus (R 1971)
Thelonious Monk (R 1963)
Wes Montgomery (R 1968)
Lee Morgan (R 1991)
Jelly Roll Morton (C 1963)
Gerry Mulligan (R 1993)
N–P
Fats Navarro (C 1982)
Joe “King” Oliver (C 1976)
Charlie Parker (R 1955)
Jaco Pastorius (R 1988)
Art Pepper (R 1982)
Oscar Peterson (R 1984)
Oscar Pettiford (V 2009)
Bud Powell (R 1966)
Q–S
Sun Ra (C 1984)
Django Reinhardt (C 1971)
Buddy Rich (R 1974)
Max Roach (C 1980)
Red Rodney (R 1990)
Sonny Rollins (R 1973)
Pee Wee Russell (C 1969)
Artie Shaw (C 1996)
Woody Shaw (R 1989)
Wayne Shorter (C 2003)
Horace Silver (R 1996)
Zoot Sims (C 1985)
Frank Sinatra (R 1998)
Bessie Smith (C 1967)
Jimmy Smith (R 2006)
Billy Strayhorn (R 1967)
T-Z
Art Tatum (C 1964)
Cecil Taylor (C 1975)
Jack Teagarden (C 1969)
Clark Terry (R 2000)
Lennie Tristano (C 1979)
McCoy Tyner (R 2004)
Sarah Vaughan (R 1985)
Joe Venuti (R 1978)
Fats Waller (C 1968)
Chick Webb (V 2010)
Ben Webster (C 1974)
Mary Lou Williams (C 1990)
Tony Williams (C 1997)
Teddy Wilson (C 1987)
Lester Young (R 1959)
Frank Zappa (C 1994)
Joe Zawinul (C 2008)
36 DOWNBEAT DECEMBER 2011