| Ahmad Jamal |
Ahmad Jamal performing with bassist James Cammack |
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Frederick Russell Jones |
| Born |
(1930-07-02) July 2, 1930 (age 81) |
| Origin |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Genres |
Jazz |
| Occupations |
Pianist, composer |
| Instruments |
Piano |
| Labels |
OKeh, Parrot, Epic, Argo, Atlantic, Dreyfus, Impulse, Telarc |
| Website |
Ahmad Jamal.net |
Ahmad Jamal (born July 2, 1930 as Frederick Russell Jones) is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker.[1] For five decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz.[2]
Since the 1980s Jamal has been regularly touring the major clubs of the United States and the large European jazz festivals. He is generally accompanied by bassist James Cammack and drummer Idris Muhammad. He has also performed regularly with saxophonist George Coleman.
Jamal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended George Westinghouse High School. He began playing at the age of three, when his uncle Lawrence challenged him to duplicate what he was doing on the piano.[3] Jamal began formal piano training at the age of seven with Mary Cardwell Dawson, whom he describes as greatly influencing him. His Pittsburgh roots have remained an important part of his identity ("Pittsburgh meant everything to me and it still does," he said in 2001,[4]) and it is there that he was immersed in the influence of jazz artists such as Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner. Jamal also studied with pianist James Miller and began playing piano professionally at the age of fourteen,[5]at which point he was recognized as a "coming great" by the pianist Art Tatum.[6] When asked about his practice habits by a New York Times critic, Jamal commented that, "I used to practice and practice with the door open, hoping someone would come by and discover me. I was never the practitioner in the sense of twelve hours a day, but I always thought about music. I think about music all the time."[7]
Jamal began touring with George Hudson's Orchestra after graduating from high school in 1948.[8] He joined another touring group known as The Four Strings, which soon disbanded when the violinist, Joe Kennedy Jr., left.[9] He moved to Chicago in 1950 (where he legally changed his name to Ahmad Jamal)[10], and made his first sides in 1951 for the Okeh label with The Three Strings (which would later also be called the Ahmad Jamal Trio, although Jamal himself prefers not to use the term "trio"): the other members were guitarist Ray Crawford and a bassist (at different times, Eddie Calhoun (1950-1952), Richard Davis (1953-1954), and Israel Crosby (from 1954)). The Three Strings arranged an extended engagement at Chicago’s Blue Note, but leapt to fame after performing at the Embers in New York City where John Hammond saw the band play and signed them to Okeh Records. Hammond, a record producer who discovered the talents and enhanced the fame of musicians like Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Count Basie, also helped Jamal’s trio attract critical acclaim.[11] Jamal subsequently recorded for Parrot (1953–1955) and Epic (1955) using the piano-guitar-bass lineup. The trio's sound changed significantly when Crawford was replaced with drummer Vernel Fournier in 1957, and the group worked as the "House Trio" at Chicago's Pershing Hotel. The trio released the live album But Not for Me which stayed on the Ten Best-selling charts for 108 weeks. Jamal's well known song "Poinciana" was first released on this album.
Upon returning to the U.S. after a tour of North Africa, the financial success of Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me allowed Jamal to open a restaurant and club called The Alhambra in Chicago.[12] The club lasted for a little less than a year, from 1959-1961. In 1962, The Three Strings disbanded and Jamal moved to New York City where, at the age of thirty-two, he took a three year hiatus from his musical career.
In 1964, Jamal resumed touring and recording, this time with the bassist Jamil Nasser and recorded a new album, Extensions, in 1965. Jamal and Nasser continued to play and record together from 1964 to 1972. He also joined forces with Fournier (again, but only for about a year) and drummer Frank Gant (1966-1972), among others. He continued to play throughout the 1970s and 1980s, mostly in trios with piano, bass and drums, but he occasionally expanded the group to include guitar. One of his most long-standing gigs was as the band for the New Year’s Eve celebrations at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C. from 1979 through the 1990s.[13]
In 1985, Jamal agreed to do an interview and recording session with his fellow jazz pianist, Marian McPartland on her NPR show “Piano Jazz.” Jamal, who said he rarely plays "But Not For Me" due to its unrivaled popularity since his 1958 recording, played an improvised version of the tune – though only after noting that he has moved on to making ninety percent of his repertoire his own compositions. He said that when he grew in popularity from the Live at the Pershing album, he was severely criticized afterwards for not playing any of his own compositions.[14]
Now in his eighties, Ahmad Jamal has continued to make numerous tours and recordings. His most recently released album is Blue Moon, 2012.[15]
Born to Baptist parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jamal did not discover the Moslem religion until his early 20s. While touring in Detroit (where there was a sizable Moslem community in the 1940s and 1950s), Jamal became interested in the Moslem religion and Islamic culture. He converted to Ahmadiyya Islam and changed his name to Ahmad Jamal in 1950.[16] In an interview with the New York Times a few years later, Jamal said his decision to change his name stemmed from a desire to “re-establish my original name.”[17]
After the recording of the best-selling album But Not For Me, Jamal’s music grew in popularity throughout the 1950s, and he attracted media coverage for his investment decisions pertaining to his "rising fortune".[18] In 1959, he took a tour of North Africa to explore investment options in Africa. Jamal, who was twenty-nine at the time, said he had a curiosity about the homeland of his ancestors, highly influenced by his conversion to the Moslem faith. He also said his religion had brought him peace of mind about his race, which accounted for his "growth in the field of music that has proved very lucrative for me."[19]
Shortly after his conversion to Islam, Jamal explained to the New York Times that he “says Moslem prayers five times a day and arises in time to say his first prayers at 5 am. He says them in Arabic in keeping with the Moslem tradition.”[20]
“Ahmad Jamal is one of the great Zen masters of jazz piano. He plays just what is needed and nothing more…every phrase is perfect.”[21]–Tom Moon, NPR musical correspondent
Although he was trained in both traditional jazz (“American classical music,” as he prefers to call it)[22] and European classical style, Ahmad Jamal has been praised as one of the greatest innovators of the genre of jazz over his exceptionally long career. Coming off the heels of bebop greats like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Jamal entered the world of jazz at a time when speed and virtuosic improvisation were central to the success of jazz musicians as artists. Jamal, however, took brave steps in the direction of a new movement, later coined “cool jazz” – an effort meant to move jazz back in the direction of popular music (as opposed to music as art). He emphasized space and time in his musical compositions and interpretations, instead of focusing on the blinding speed of bebop.
Because of this unusual style, in his early years on the jazz scene Jamal was “often dismissed by jazz writers as no more than a cocktail pianist, a player so given to fluff that his work shouldn’t be considered seriously in any artistic sense.”[23] Stanley Crouch, author of Considering Genius offers a very different reaction to Jamal’s music; he claims that Jamal, like the highly influential Thelonious Monk, was a true innovator of the jazz tradition. His unique musical style stemmed from many individual characteristics, including his use of orchestral effects and his extraordinary ability to control the beat of various tunes. These stylistic choices cemented Jamal’s place in jazz history for reinventing the trio: “Through the use of space and changes of rhythm and tempo,” writes Crouch, “Jamal invented a group sound that had all the surprise and dynamic variation of an imaginatively ordered big band.”[24] Jamal’s style chooses to explore the texture of riffs, timbres, and phrases rather than the quantity or speed of notes in any given improvisation. Speaking about Jamal, A.B. Spellman of the National Endowment of the Arts said, “Nobody except Thelonious Monk used space better, and nobody ever applied the artistic device of tension and release better.”[25] These (at the time) unconventional techniques that Jamal gleaned from both traditional classical and contemporary jazz musicians helped pave the way for later jazz greats like Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner.[26]
Though Jamal is, regrettably, often overlooked by jazz critics and historians, he is frequently credited with having a great influence on Miles Davis. Davis is quoted as saying that he was impressed by Jamal’s rhythmic sense and his “concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement…”[27] Jamal has his own way of characterizing what he thought Davis admired about his music, however: "I think he was talking about my discipline as opposed to my space. People call it space, but I call it discipline. That’s my answer to the people who try to analyze what I’m doing. I’m a very disciplined person musically, and I think it’s important in music to be aware of the fact that in music you can’t overdo, you can’t be excessive in anything in life. You have to sometimes be a minimalist."[28]
Jamal and Davis became friends as their paths crossed in the 1950s, and Davis continued to support Jamal as a fellow musician, often playing versions of Jamal’s own songs ("Ahmad’s Blues," "New Rhumba"), until he died in 1991.[29]
Jamal, speaking about his own work says, “I like doing ballads. They’re hard to play. It takes years of living, really, to read them properly.”[30] From an early age, Jamal developed an appreciation for the lyrics of the songs he learned, such as ballads: “I once heard Ben Webster playing his heart out on a ballad. All of a sudden he stopped. I asked him, ‘Why did you stop, Ben?’ He said, ‘I forgot the lyrics.’ That’s what Nat [King] Cole was talking about, ‘You have to learn to live with a song.’”[31] Jamal attributes the variety in his musical taste to the fact that he grew up in several eras: the big band era, the bebop years, and the electronic age.[32] He says his style evolved from drawing on the techniques and music produced in these three eras.
In more recent years, Jamal has embraced the electronic influences affecting the genre of jazz. He has also occasionally expanded his usual small ensemble of three to include a tenor saxophone (George Coleman) and a violin (Ray Kennedy). A jazz fan interviewed by Downbeat magazine about Jamal in 2010 described his development as “more aggressive and improvisational these days. The word I used to use is avant garde; that might not be right. Whatever you call it, the way he plays is the essence of what jazz is.”[33]
Ted Nash, a longtime member of the Lincoln Center Orchestra, had the opportunity to play with Jamal in 2008 for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Nash described his experience with Jamal’s style in an interview with Downbeat magazine: "The way he comped wasn’t the generic way that lots of pianists play with chords in the middle of the keyboard, just filling things up. He gave lots of single line responses. He’d come back and throw things out at you, directly from what you played. It was really interesting because it made you stop, and allowed him to respond, and then you felt like playing something else – that’s something I don’t feel with a lot of piano players. It’s really quite engaging. I guess that’s another reason people focus in on him. He makes them hone in."[34]
Perhaps Jamal’s most famous recording and undoubtedly the one that brought him vast popularity in the late 1950s and into the 1960s jazz age, Live at the Pershing was recorded at the Pershing Hotel in Chicago in 1958. Jamal played the set with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernel Fournier. The set list expressed a diverse collection of tunes, including “Surry With the Fringe On Top” from the musical Oklahoma! and Jamal’s infamous arrangement of the jazz standard “Poinciana.” Jazz musicians and listeners alike found inspiration in the Live at the Pershing recording, and Jamal’s trio was recognized as an integral new building block in the history of jazz. “If you’re looking for an argument that pleasurable mainstream art can assume radical status at the same time, Jamal is your guide,” said New York Times contributor Ben Ratliff in a review of the album.[35]
Jamal typically plays with a bassist and drummer; his current trio is with bassist James Cammack and drummer Idris Muhammad. He has also performed with percussionist Manolo Badrena.[36] Jamal has recorded with saxophonist George Coleman on the album The Essence; with vibraphonist Gary Burton on "In Concert"; with the voices of the Howard A. Roberts Chorale on "Bright, Blue and Beautiful" and "Cry Young"; with brass, reeds, and strings celebrating his hometown of "Pittsburgh"; and with "The Assai Quartet".
Ahmad Jamal has played with various jazz musicians throughout his extensive career, including: George Hudson, Ray Crawford, Eddie Calhoun, Richard Davis, Israel Crosby, Vernel Fournier, Jamil Nasser, Frank Gant, James Cammack, Herlin Riley, Dave Bowler, John Heard, Yoron Israel, Belden Bullock, Manolo Badrena, Gary Burton, and Idris Muhammad, among others.
Clint Eastwood featured two recordings from Jamal's But Not For Me album — "Music, Music, Music" and "Poinciana" — in the 1995 movie The Bridges of Madison County.
Nas' 1994 hit song "The World Is Yours" features a very recognizable sample of Jamal's song "I Love Music" from the album The Awakening.
The French government has inducted Ahmad Jamal into the prestigious Order of the Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, naming him Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres on June 2007.
In 1994, Jamal received the National Endowment for the Arts American Jazz Masters award and was also named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University.
Some of Ahmad Jamal’s more prestigious awards include the following, in chronological order:[37]
- 1959 - Entertainment Award from Pittsburgh Junior Chamber of Commerce
- 1980 - Distinguished Service Award from City of Washington D.C., Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Smithsonian Institute
- 1981 - Nomination for the Best R&B Instrumental Performance (“You’re Welcome,” “Stop on By”) from NARAS
- 1986 - Mellon Jazz Festival Salutes Ahmad Jamal in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 1987 - Honorary Membership Philippines Jazz Foundation
- 2001 - Arts & Culture Recognition Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.
- 2001 - Induction in to The Kelly-Strayhorn Gallery of Stars for Achievements as Pianist and Composer from East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce
- 2003 - American Jazz Hall of Fame from New Jersey Jazz Society
- 2003 - Gold Medallion from Steinway & Songs 150 Years Celebration (1853-2003)
- 2011 - Induction into Downbeat Magazine’s 76th Reader’s Poll Hall of Fame
Ahmad Jamal at Keystone Korner, San Francisco CA 1980 (Photo: Brian McMillen)
With Ray Brown
With Shirley Horn
- ^ Crouch, Stanley (2007). Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz. Basic Books. pp. 95. ISBN 978-0-465-01512-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=H2Q2ESacLXQC&pg=PA95.
- ^ Early, Gerald Lyn (2001). Miles Davis and American culture. Missouri History Museum. pp. 79. ISBN 978-1-883982-38-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=rlK4Rre5FekC&pg=PA79.
- ^ Ahmad Jamal
- ^ Early, Gerald, ed. Miles Davis and American Culture. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 2001: 79-85. Print.
- ^ Wang, Richard and Barry Kernfeld. “Jamal, Ahmad.” The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
- ^ Waltzer, Ben. “Always Making Jazz Seem New: The Pianist Ahmad Jamal is an Innovator Who Finds Originality by Taking a Long at the Tradition of Small-Group Jazz.” New York Times 11 Nov 2001: A27. Print.
- ^ Waltzer, p. A27.
- ^ Wang and Kernfeld, p. 1.
- ^ Waltzer, p. A27.
- ^ Wang and Kernfeld, p. 1.
- ^ Wang and Kernfeld, p. 1.
- ^ Ahmad Jamal at All About Jazz
- ^ Wang and Kernfeld, p. 1.
- ^ “Ahmad Jamal On Piano Jazz 1985.” Piano Jazz. NPR. 29 Aug 2008. Radio.
- ^ Ahmad Jamal Official Website
- ^ Wang and Kernfeld, p. 1.
- ^ Walz, Jay. “Pianist-Investor Is A Hit In Cairo: Jazz Musician Ahmad Jamal Finds Moslem Faith Aids Him on African Visit.” New York Times 20 Nov 1959: 14. Print.
- ^ Walz, p. 14.
- ^ Walz, p. 14.
- ^ Walz, p. 14.
- ^ Norris, Michele. “1,000 Essential Recordings You Must Hear.” All Things Considered. By Tom Moon. 22 Aug 2008. Radio.
- ^ Waltzer, p. A27.
- ^ Crouch, Stanley. Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz. Cambridge: Basic Civitas Books, 2006: 95-99. Print.
- ^ Crouch, p. 95.
- ^ “Ahmad Jamal: ‘Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not For Me.’” Basic Jazz Record Library. NPR. 1 Aug 2001. Radio.
- ^ Crouch, p. 99.
- ^ Early, p. 79.
- ^ Early, p. 80.
- ^ Early, p. 79.
- ^ “Ahmad Jamal On Piano Jazz 1985.” Piano Jazz. NPR. 29 Aug 2008. Radio.
- ^ Waltzer, p. A27.
- ^ Early, p. 81.
- ^ Macnie, Jim. “Intricacy & Groove: At Home with Ahmad Jamal.” Downbeat. Mar 2010, Vol. 77 Issue 3: 26-31. Microfilm.
- ^ Macnie, p. 31.
- ^ Macnie, p. 28.
- ^ Toronto Jazz Festival - Festival Events
- ^ Ahmad Jamal Official Website
- “Ahmad Jamal: ‘Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not For Me.’” Basic Jazz Record Library. NPR. 1 Aug 2001. Radio.
- “Ahmad Jamal On Piano Jazz 1985.” Piano Jazz. NPR. 29 Aug 2008. Radio.
- Crouch, Stanley. Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz. Cambridge: Basic Civitas Books, 2006. Print.
- Early, Gerald, ed. Miles Davis and American Culture. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 2001. Print.
- Holsey, Steve. “Sepia On The Record.” Sepia [Fort Worth, TX] 1 April 1980: 14. Print.
- “Jamal, Ahmad – Ahmad’s Blues.” Encyclopedia of Music, 4th ed. Ed. Colin Larkin. Oxford Music Online. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
- “Jamal, Ahmad.” Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Ed. Colin Larkin. Oxford Music Online. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
- Macnie, Jim. “Intricacy & Groove: At Home with Ahmad Jamal.” Downbeat. Mar 2010, Vol. 77 Issue 3: 26-31. Microfilm.
- Norris, Michele. “1,000 Essential Recordings You Must Hear.” All Things Considered. By Tom Moon. 22 Aug 2008. Radio.
- Walz, Jay. “Pianist-Investor Is A Hit In Cairo: Jazz Musician Ahmad Jamal Finds Moslem Faith Aids Him on African Visit.” New York Times 20 Nov 1959: 14. Print.
- Waltzer, Ben. “Always Making Jazz Seem New: The Pianist Ahmad Jamal is an Innovator Who Finds Originality by Taking a Long at the Tradition of Small-Group Jazz.” New York Times 11 Nov 2001: A27. Print.
- Wang, Richard and Barry Kernfeld. “Jamal, Ahmad.” The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
- Wright, Todd and John Higby. “Appalachian Jazz: Some Preliminary Notes.” Black Music Research Journal 23, 1/2 (2003): 58, 59. Print.
| Persondata |
| Name |
Jamal, Ahmad |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
July 2, 1930 |
| Place of birth |
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| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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