REMY GABALDA/AFP via Getty Images
Ahmad Jamal, the jazz pianist best known for his arrangement of "Poinciana," has died at 92. News of his passing was first confirmed to The Washington Post by Jamal's wife, Laura Hess-Hey, on Sunday. His daughter, Sumayah Jamal, later confirmed to the New York Times that the cause of death was prostate cancer.
Born Frederick Russell Jones in Pittsburgh in 1930, Jamal was introduced to music when an uncle taught him to play piano. He went on to release over 70 albums, ranging from solo piano work to compositions with string quartets. Among that collection of albums are the best-selling 1958 project Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me, and the 1970 Ahmad Jamal Trio collaboration The Awakening.
In his youth, Jamal studied under National Negro Opera Company founder Mary Cardwell Dawson as well as pianist James Miller. At 17 he toured with George Hudson’s Orchestra. It was a move to Chicago in 1950 that kickstarted his career as he formed his first trio, the Three Strings, and began releasing solo albums. It was in Chicago that the Three Strings took a residency at the local Pershing Hotel where they recorded But Not For Me. The album sold one million copies and remained on the Billboard charts for more than 100 weeks.
It was while living in Chicago that Jamal converted to Islam and changed his name. Talking to Time magazine about going by the name Ahmad Jamal, he said: "I haven’t adopted a name. It’s a part of my ancestral background and heritage. I have re-established my original name. I have gone back to my own vine and fig tree."
Jamal's music has been sampled by artists including Jay-Z, Gang Starr, and Nas, who used part of "I Love Music" on Illmatic track "The World Is Yours. "I Love Music" features on Ahmad Jamal Trio's classic album The Awakening. The album cemented Jamal's status and influence, even if his peers didn't feel he got enough appreciation. In 1989 Miles Davis wrote: "I have always thought Ahmad Jamal was a great piano player who never got the recognition he deserved."
Jamal continued releasing albums until he was in his late 80s. His most recent album was 2019’s Ballades. Two years prior, in 2017, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his work.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2013, Jamal explained how his creative process changed as he got older. “I used to do 20% my own pieces and 80% other people’s; now it’s turned the other way,” he said. “After a certain time, you discover the Mozart in you, the Duke Ellington or Billy Strayhorn in you. It takes time to discover yourself. You also have to find and keep players who are in tune with what you’re doing; you have that empathy, the quality of breathing together.”
Artists including BADBADNOTGOOD and Open Mike Eagle paid tribute to Jamal in the immediate hours after news of his death was announced. See below for a round-up of those messages.