AHMAD JAMAL,
1930-2023

Ahmad Jamal, the jazz pianist whose spare and hushed style would influence Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and countless others, died Sunday at his home in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts. He was 92.

Jamal’s career started in the mid-1940s when bebop was the style of the day. He nonetheless chose to play at a slower pace, emphasizing dynamics, dense chords and judicious use of silence over speedy flashes of virtuosity.

His groundbreaking and enduring approach would earn him a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2017, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master award in 1994 and induction into France’s Order of Arts and Letters in 2007.

Born Frederick Russell Jones, Jamal converted to Islam after moving to Chicago in 1950 from his native Pittsburgh. His first album, Ahmad Jamal Plays, was released in 1955 on the short-lived Parrot label and reissued a year later on the Chess-owned Argo as Chamber Music of the New Jazz.

Jamal became established commercially with the 1958 release At the Pershing: But Not for Me, which featured his interpretation of “Poinciana.” The song would become his best-known work, and the album would spend two years on the Pop album chart and sell more than a million copies.

Despite taking a short hiatus from 1962 to '64, when he opened a restaurant in Chicago, Jamal put out more than 60 albums during his career, releasing new recordings up through 2011’s Grammy-nominated Blue Moon.

The Jazz Detective label last year released two live albums of Jamal in his 1960s prime recorded in Seattle; a third set is in the works.

Rappers have sampled many of his early 1970s work, including JAY-Z, De La Soul, Nas and Common.