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Remembering Ahmad Jamal: Finished But Not Never
Courtesy Gabrielle Saplana
When people say Jamal influenced me a lot, they’re right…
—Miles Davis
In a career that spanned the 1940s to the 2020s, Jamal always followed his own musical instincts. He was one of the very few pianists of the day not to succumb to the lure of bebop, purveying instead a spare, refined sound. Perhaps because his approach was so different to the prevailing lingua franca of the 1950s, he was dubbed a "cocktail pianist" in some unenlightened quarters.
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Later, the young
Keith Jarrett
pianob.1945
Jan Johansson
piano1931 - 1968
But Jamal's influence was not confined to the 1950s or 1960s. Contemporary pianists such as
Brad Mehldau
pianob.1970
Jacky Terrasson
pianob.1966
Jason Moran
pianob.1975
Fred Hersch
pianob.1955
Hiromi
pianob.1979
Scott Kinsey
keyboardsSingaporean pianist
Jeremy Monteiro
pianob.1960
It was Jamal's economy, his touch, swing and above all his use of space that influenced so many. Jamal himself, saw it differently, as he told All About Jazz in 2010: "Other people call it space. I've never called it space. I call it discipline."
Born Frederick Russell Jones on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began playing piano at the age of three. Growing up, he didn't have to travel far to hear jazz. Pittsburgh had bred the likes of
Billy Strayhorn
piano1915 - 1967
Erroll Garner
piano1921 - 1977
Earl Hines
piano1903 - 1983
Ray Brown
bass, acoustic1926 - 2002
Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990
Stanley Turrentine
saxophone, tenor1934 - 2000
Billy Eckstine
vocals1914 - 1993
Maxine Sullivan
vocals1911 - 1987
Pittsburgh was an important musical incubator for Jamal: "That's where all my inspiration comes from," he told All About Jazz.
The pianists that would influence the young Jamal were
Art Tatum
piano1909 - 1956
Nat King Cole
piano and vocals1919 - 1965
Jamal began touring with various groups in the late 1940s. He discovered Islam in his teens and changed his name to Ahmad Jamal in 1950. He rarely spoke about his religious beliefs and in later years interviewers were requested not to broach the subject.
Jamal's first record was for Okeh in 1951 with The Three Strings, which featured the influential guitarist
Ray Crawford
guitarb.1924
Eddie Calhoun
bass, acousticb.1921
Richard Davis
bass, acoustic1930 - 2023
Israel Crosby
bass, acousticb.1919
Vernel Fournier
drums1928 - 2000
The trio would record a dozen albums between 1958 and 1962, when its trajectory was cut short by the tragic death of Crosby.
Widely admired at the time, the passing years have only strengthened its reputation as one of the finest piano trios in the history of jazz. Not that Jamal was aware at the time of just how special the trio was. "I was too young to fully appreciate what I had," he admitted. "I was not mature enough."
As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, Jamal, like so many of his peers, dabbled with electric keyboards, with mixed results. In 1983 he hired
James Cammack
bassNobody knew Jamal's approach to small ensemble playing better than Cammack, insights he shared with All About Jazz in 2012. "It's completely orchestral. The trio to him is like a big band. It's not like a jazz band," Cammack explained.
"Most jazz groups play from top to bottom. They play the tune then they go into the improvisation section, then they go into the ensemble section, they come out with some more solos and then they end the tune. Ahmad starts with the ensemble section, then he goes into the improvisational section, and we may never hear the melody or anything that resembles the top of the tune until maybe near the end of the song."
Jamal, by his own admission, was "not a migratory bird." His European tour of 1996 was the first time he had played there since touring with
Hampton Hawes
piano1928 - 1977
It would mark a significant new chapter in Jamal's career, one that saw him tour the world and find adoring new audiences in Australia, Brazil, Lebanon, Thailand and Malaysia.
Jamal seemed to enjoy a special relationship with French audiences. He would record four live albums in France in the 1990s and 2000s, including Live at the Olympia with
Yusef Lateef
woodwinds1920 - 2013
In Europe, and elsewhere, they rolled the red carpet out for Jamal whenever he turned up, a reverence that, by comparison, was largely lacking on home soil.
"You'll never see a great neon sign like I have when I do the Olympia, not any place in the United States," Jamal stated with thinly disguised regret. "I've had those kind of marquees all over the world, but not in the United States."
In time, recognition at home did come. Jamal's contributions to jazz were acknowledged when he became an NEA Jazz Master in 1994. He was particularly proud when Clint Eastwood used two of Jamal's songs in the film The Bridges of Madison County.
There was also a string of notable late-career albums, chief among them It's Magic (Birdology, 2007), A Quiet Time (Dreyfus, 2009) the Grammy-nominated Blue Moon (Jazz Village, 2011), Saturday Morning (Jazz Village, 2013) and Marseille (Jazz Village, 2016).
Jamal's final studio album was Ballades (Jazz Village, 2019), released almost seventy years after his first. A mostly solo piano outing, Jamal was joined on three of the ballads by his long-standing bassist, James Cammack, who observed:
"Some of the most amazing things I've ever heard him play are things he's done in rubato; solo in ballads. His ballads are stellar. Nobody can nail that stuff like that. His manipulation of the inner voicing of songs is just unmatched."
It is a testament to Jamal's continuing relevance that his music has been widely sampled by the likes of J Dilla, De La Soul, Nas and Jay-Z. Like Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett, they too can hear the timeless magic in Jamal's music.
Ahmad Jamal: July 2, 1930-April 16, 2023.
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