US jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal has died after a battle with prostate cancer. He was 92.
Throughout his seven-decade career, Jamal has been at the cutting edge of jazz, and has been cited as an influence by Miles Davis and Vijay Iyer. He was particularly celebrated as being the leader of several small-group bands and was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2017 for his contributions.
Born in Pittsburg in 1930 as Frederick Russell Jones, Jamal began trying his hand at the piano at the age of three, mimicking what his uncle played on the instrument. He began his classical studies four years later, brisking through works that ranged from Bach to Nat King Cole.
"I studied Art Tatum, Bach, Beethoven, Count Basie, John Kirby and Nat Cole,” he said in a 2018 interview with music magazine Wax Poetics. “I was studying Liszt. I had to know European and American classical music. My mother was rich in spirit, and she led me to another rich person: my teacher, Mary Cardwell Dawson, who started the first African-American opera company in the country."
Jamal began touring soon after graduating from a Pittsburgh high school in 1948. He first performed with the George Hudson's Orchestra, before joining The Four Strings. However, the band soon disbanded and Jamal moved to Chicago, performing with local musicians including saxophonist Von Freeman.
Raised in a Christian Baptist family, Jamal discovered Islam as a teenager while touring Detroit, which had a significant Muslim community in the mid-20th century. He converted to Islam in 1950, changing his name.
Within a year, he’d begin recording his first works with the group The Three Strings, which was then known as Ahmad Jamal Trio and included guitarist Ray Crawford, Eddie Calhoun, Richard Davis and Israel Crosby on bass.
The band found fame after performing at the Embers in New York City. John Hammond saw the group play and signed them to Okeh Records. Hammond was the producer who had discovered several leading musicians, including Billie Holiday and Basie.
There was a shift in the line-up and sound of the band when Crawford left and drummer Vernel Fournier joined. The band was the house act of Chicago's Pershing Hotel. They released the live album At the Pershing: But Not for Me, a best-seller for more than 100 days. One of Jamal’s most renowned recordings, Poinciana, was released on this album.
In 1959, Jamal embarked on a tour of North Africa, scouting for investment opportunities in the continent. He was 29 and keen on discovering more about where his ancestors came from. He was also motivated by his faith and said Islam brought him peace of mind.
Following the success of his tour, Jamal returned to Chicago and opened the restaurant and club The Alhambra. The Three Strings disbanded in 1962 and Jamal took a brief hiatus from performing music.
He began touring and recording again less than three years later. He was joined by bassist Jamil Nasser, with whom Jamal recorded Extensions in 1965. The duo would continue to perform together for the better part of the decade.
Jamal exclusively played the acoustic piano until the 1970s. He then began incorporating the electric piano, recording an instrumental of Suicide is Painless, the theme song from the 1970 film Mash, which was released on a 1973 reissue of the film's soundtrack album.
Jamal continued to tour and make music well into his 80s. Among his most recent works are the 2013 album Saturday Morning, the 2014 CD/DVD release Ahmad Jamal Featuring Yusef Lateef Live at L'Olympia and Marseille in 2017. He was also the mentor of Japanese jazz prodigy Hiromi Uehara.
Jamal broke out at a time after bebop giants such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. When virtuosic arrangements were at the fore, Jamal sought restraint, taking directions in a movement dubbed cool jazz. He jettisoned the breakneck speed and dizziness of bebop in favour of a more focused and intentional method.
His approach would go on to shape jazz in the years to come, influencing new generations of jazz greats. It was, as Davis is quoted in the Gerald Lyn Early book Miles Davis and American Culture as saying, Jamal’s "concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement" that has made him a pillar of jazz history.
