Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal (piano), James Cammack (bass), Herlin Riley (drums), Manolo Badrena (percussion)

The 79 year-old pianist Ahmad Jamal is a master of his instrument. Although his big breakthrough was already in 1958, nowadays his music is more biting, livelier and more imaginative than ever.  

The man from Pittsburgh developed his own particular view on the piano. He came on the scene in the fifties and already had a hit in 1958 with But Not For Me. The man from Pittsburgh was then 28 and lived in Chicago. Bassist Israel Cosby and drummer Vernel Fournier helped him to create that masterpiece. With what he earned on the record, he opened a nightclub in Chicago, The Alhambra. And yet at the time there were people who laughingly referred to him as a cocktail pianist. However, trumpet player Miles Davis saw something in his progressive “hotel lobby music” and became an unqualified fan.

When he was three years old an uncle of his asked him to play a few pieces by ear and he did so with no trouble at all. After that, he studied intensely for many years. He immersed himself in the Liszt etudes and the canon of classical piano music. Jamal soon became a professional musician and in 1951 formed his own group and made his first recording.

Miles Davis, Randy Weston, Keith Jarrett and Bill Charlap refer to him as being highly influential in his use of rhythm and space, melodies, grooves, vamps and the unexpected.
Although his career has had its ups and downs, 20 years ago he came back with a vengeance and ever since then he’s been playing regularly and been in the studio recording. Director and jazz fan Clint Eastwood chose two of his pieces, ‘Music, Music, Music’ and ‘Poinciana’ for his film ‘The Bridges of Madison Country’.

His style has changed over the years: from the flowing, fresh style on his albums of the fifties on to the more Caribbean tinted recordings from the seventies to his more recent playing, self-assured and overflowing with excitement. Jamal managed to use the clichés of the cocktail as handy weapons. He can make the piano sound so enchanting that sometimes it’s as if it’s on heat. Using rococo motifs he creates what is nearly scintillating kitsch. He juggles riffs and greedily explores the deepest registers, only to surface a little later to thread sparkling top notes together. And then he’ll let the piano thunder, because the piano is also a percussive instrument. He likes to work with short, melodic lines and leaves unfinished but stimulating themes hanging in the air. As pianist he can develop an unusual dynamic and create violent contrasts. Thundering chords interchange with subtle lines and curly embellishments.

Such pianists are rare. Jamal might sometimes go off on the strangest tangents but always arrives back with both feet on the ground. He’s created his own personal style; his playing explores uncharted depths, but remains playful and elegant.