Celebrated
pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal continues his performance schedule at home in the
U.S. and around the world, as he has for the last seven decades. Noted for his
outstanding technical command and identifiable sound as a piano stylist, Jamal
was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy who
began to play the piano at the age of three, he began formal studies at age
seven. While in high school, he completed the equivalent of college master
classes under the noted African-American concert singer and teacher Mary
Cardwell Dawson and pianist James Miller. He joined the musicians’ union at the
age of 14, and he began touring upon graduation from Westinghouse High School
at the age of 17, drawing critical acclaim for his solos. In 1951 he formed his
first trio, The Three Strings. Record Producer John Hammond “discovered” The
Three Strings performing at New York’s The Embers Club, and signed them to Okeh
Records when this imprint was revived as a base for jazz and R&B releases
under the Columbia (now Sony) umbrella.
Working as
the “house trio” at Chicago’s Pershing Hotel in 1958, Jamal, with bassist
Israel Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier, made an on-location recording for
Argo (Chess) Records entitled But Not For Me. The resulting hit single and
album, which also included Poinciana—now Jamal’s trademark—remained on the Top
10 Best-Selling charts for an unprecedented 108 weeks. The resulting financial
success enabled Jamal to realize a dream, and he opened a restaurant/club, The
Alhambra, in Chicago. Here the trio was able to perform while limiting their touring
schedule.
Although
Jamal performs in many configurations and with many other jazz artists, the
solo and trio formats form the core of his work. Following his Crosby/Fournier
configuration, his trio with bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Frank Gant dominated
his large recorded output, as well as concert dates, from the mid-1960s to the
mid-'70s. His current quartet is with bassist Reginald Veal, drummer Herlin
Riley, and percussionist Manolo Badrena.
Considering
his trio “an orchestra,” Jamal not only achieves a unified sound, but subtly
inserts independent roles for the bass and drums. The hallmarks of Jamal’s
style are rhythmic innovations, colorful harmonic perceptions, especially left
hand harmonic and melodic figures, plus parallel and contrary motion lines in
and out of chordal substitutions and alterations and pedal point ostinato
interludes in tasteful dynamics. He also incorporates a unique sense of space
in his music, and his musical concepts are exciting without being loud in
volume. Augmented by a selection of unusual standards and his own compositions,
Jamal would notably impress and influence, among others, trumpeter Miles Davis.
In 1970,
Jamal performed "M.A.S.H. Theme (Suicide Is Painless)," the title
composition by Johnny Mandel for the soundtrack of the film M*A*S*H and in
1995, two tracks from his smash album But Not For Me—Music, Music, Music, and
Poinciana were featured in the Clint Eastwood film The Bridges of Madison
County.
In 1994,
Jamal received the American Jazz Masters fellowship award from the National
Endowment for the Arts. The same year he was named a Duke Ellington Fellow at
Yale University, where he performed commissioned works with the Assai String
Quartet.
In June of
2007 the French Government inducted Jamal into the prestigious l’Ordre des Arts
et des Lettres. Former recipients being William Faulkner, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Jackson Pollock, Ella Fitzgerald, Alan Ginsberg and Toni Morrison.
Ahmad
Jamal's music remains youthful, fresh, imaginative and always influential. His
most recent recording, from 2014, is a two-CD-plus-DVD live set with flutist
Yusef Lateef from the Olympia theatre in Paris. His 2008 recording It’s Magic
hit the charts at No. 13 immediately after its release in the U.S., being
touted as one of his finest works yet to date. Hailed by critics as a career
highlight, the album graced the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart, the iTunes
Jazz Top 10, and peaked at No. 2 on the Jazz Week Radio Chart In France. Jamal
was awarded Best International Album (Album International de Production
Francaise) by Les Victoires du Jazz, the French equivalent of the Grammys. The
album also garnered Record of the Year from Jazz Man magazine.
New
England Conservatory (NEC) will bestow honorary Doctor of Music (hon. D.M.) degree to Ahmad Jamal at its 144th annual Commencement Exercises,
Sunday, May 17 at 3 p.m. in NEC’s Jordan Hall.
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