Ahmad Jamal -

Ahmad Jamal (born July 2, 1930) is an American post-bop/jazz-funk pianist from Pittsburgh. He established his national profile with the Ahmad Jamal Trio and the 1958 Argo album At the Pershing: But Not for Me, then extended his bandleader catalog across Argo, Impulse!, Atlantic, 20th Century, and later labels. Jamal moved through acoustic trio work, expanded ensembles, electric keyboards, and orchestral arrangements on albums including The Awakening, Freeflight, Jamalca, Steppin Out with a Dream, and Digital Works.

Background

Ahmad Jamal was born Frederick Russell Jones on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His uncle Lawrence tested him at a piano at age three, and Jones reproduced the notes Lawrence played on the family instrument. His mother arranged formal piano instruction with Mary Cardwell Dawson, followed by further studies with pianist James Miller after Dawson relocated to Washington, D.C. His aunt Louise, an educator in Wilson, North Carolina, sent him sheet music that supplied repertoire for lessons and early professional work.

Jamal attended Armor Elementary School and Westinghouse High School in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh. He played piano in the beginner, junior, and senior orchestras and the Cadets jazz band under music teacher Carl McVicker. Jamal played Liszt études by age ten and wrote a big-band arrangement at the same age. He completed high school in February 1948 after a final term reduced to three daily classes while he worked nights as a musician.

Jamal joined Pittsburgh AFM Local 471 at age fourteen under an age waiver and worked proms, dances, American Legion halls, Elks clubs, and nightclubs around Pittsburgh, Uniontown, and Aliquippa. His early employers included drummer Honey Boy Minor, saxophonist Leroy Brown, the orchestra of William Hitchcock, pianist Joe Westray, and saxophonist Carl Arter. Bandleader George Hudson heard Jamal at Local 471 jam sessions and recruited him after high school. Jamal joined the Hudson orchestra at Club Harlem in Atlantic City for the summer 1948 season and toured with a band that included trumpeter Clark Terry and arranger-saxophonist Ernie Wilkins.

Jamal wrote “Ahmad’s Blues” at age eighteen while working with the St. Louis song-and-dance team the Caldwells. He also worked from 1948 through 1950 with the Four Strings under violinist Joe Kennedy Jr., whom he first met at the Dawson music school on Apple Avenue. The quartet traveled to Chicago in search of engagements but secured little steady work. Kennedy returned to Pittsburgh, and Jamal continued the reduced ensemble as the Three Strings.

Jamal found club engagements for the Three Strings and established a piano-guitar-bass lineup with guitarist Ray Crawford and bassist Eddie Calhoun. John Hammond heard the group and secured the recording connection that led to Okeh Records. The Three Strings recorded four Okeh sides in Chicago on October 25, 1951, including “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” “Will You Still Be Mine?,” “Rica Pulpa,” and “Perfidia.” The trio returned on May 5, 1952, for “Aki and Ukthay,” “Billy Boy,” “Ahmad’s Blues,” and “A Gal in Calico.”

Jamal legally changed his name from Frederick Russell Jones to Ahmad Jamal in February 1952. Bassist Richard Davis replaced Calhoun for a January 1954 Parrot session in Chicago, and Israel Crosby subsequently assumed the bass chair. Jamal entered a Chicago studio for Parrot on May 23, 1955, with guitarist Ray Crawford and bassist Israel Crosby. The trio recorded nine performances for the debut LP Ahmad Jamal Plays.

Discography: