I usually practice with the door open. I always played like that, hoping someone would walk by and discover me: Ahmad Jamal once confessed: Video, Photos

He had to wait for his chance, but in 1950, while performing at New York’s Embers club, he was seen by John Hammond, the discoverer of Billie Holiday and Count Basie.

Hammond offered Jamal a contract with Columbia Records, and the long and storied musical career of Ahmad Jamal, Miles Davis’s favorite pianist, began; a musician whom Stanley Cruoch called the most influential figure in the history of jazz, after Charlie Parker, one of the greatest innovators of jazz piano, whose work largely shaped the musical minds of Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner.

It all started with playing with the door open

Jamal was born in 1930 and from the age of three he began receiving musical training from his family. He started playing when he was 3, began formal training at 7, and was performing publicly by 11.

After completing his formal, administrative education, he began touring the United States playing in big bands. The 17-year-old Jamal was praised not only by his teachers at school but also by his own heroes – including Art Tatum, who described the young pianist as a great talent.

He was not wrong. Raised and formally educated on European classical music, Jamal discovered jazz through Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, and Earl Garner and devoted his career to it. He arrived in New York, where he did not fit into the general musical color.

Be-bop reigned in the city, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. And Jamal was not interested in racing – that was how he saw be-bop, as a display of speed, a mad race at breakneck speed.

His playing style was already reminiscent of French impressionism, later adopted for the needs of cool jazz. Jamal did not intend to show off his technique and speed, placing emphasis on the sound of the chord itself, its duration and the space it marked.

He could be compared to a painter, who cared more about the intensity of the colour than the precisely defined shape of the painted object. The young pianist, barely twenty years old, did not win fans with his approach to jazz.

At that time, he was often described as a cocktail player who did not impress with the speed and virtuosity of “real” pianists. Although he could easily switch to faster, more spectacular playing, Jamal remained true to his beliefs in the primacy of reflection and quality over speed of execution.

In 1951, Jamal began writing his own music. He began recording for Okeh Records (later Chess) and in 1958 he recorded what is arguably his most important album, But Not For You, a recording of a concert at a music club in Chicago’s Pershing Hotel.

The album topped the charts for several weeks and became one of the best-selling records in jazz history, and the song “Poinciana” became a radio hit. The pianist’s career blossomed—he collaborated with a young trumpeter, Miles Davis, who loved Jamal’s playing so much that when he tried to explain to another great pianist, Red Garland, the level at which he expected him to play, he would say that it had to be played “like Ahmad Jamal.”

By letting the chords ring out, emphasizing primarily the space between the notes, Jamal was nothing like the pianists Powell. He didn’t want to compete with anyone, focused on creating space for the piano to communicate with the section.

He achieved this understanding between the instruments; in Ahmad Jamal’s trio there was no leader, everyone was on equal terms. In later years, Bill Evans would draw on the results of Jamal’s work in his trio.

“People call it space, but I call it discipline. I’m a very disciplined musician and I think one of the most important things in playing is knowing when you’re overdoing it. Sometimes you have to be minimalist,” Jamal confessed.

This approach gave him a unique, revolutionary style of playing that pianists still use today. Discipline in this version is watching your words. Every single one. Each is equally important and contributes to the whole story to the same extent.

Jamal recalled Ben Webster, whom he had the opportunity to watch play. Webster was playing a sad ballad, he played beautifully but suddenly stopped. “Why did you stop?” – asked Jamal in surprise. “I forgot the words,” replied the saxophonist.

Jamal was not attracted to ornamentation, glitter and spectacular somersaults, he was interested in the very heart of the matter and, as we know, you have to dig for it. But Ahmad Jamal was prepared for long, arduous work. “I get up at 5 a.m. every day to pray,” said the pianist.

He imposed spiritual discipline on himself not only in music but also in life, converting to Islam in the 1950s, during one of his visits to Detroit, where he came across Muslims. “I want to re-establish my own name,” he explained the change of surname from Jones to Jamal.

Today, Ahmad Jamal is no longer with us. He was 92 years old and died on April 16, 2023, in his home in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, according to the pianist’s family of prostate cancer. He was an active artist almost to the end, although of course in recent years he did not perform as much as he used to.

And what is important to emphasize, he did not turn into his own caricature and never changed into small things. Ahmad Jamal lived to a ripe old age, but I think he was actually a few dozen years younger. It is always difficult to get to know a new album by a beloved, but already elderly, artist.

It is often accompanied by an unpleasant feeling of fear of disappointment. The latest works that Jamal has produced are a completely different matter. From the very first sounds, there is peace and a sense of confidence. Ahmad Jamal did not disappoint, he was brilliant in every inch.

He proved that there are no age barriers for him and that his creativity finds new outlets. Standards seem to exist only for Ahmad Jamal to play. He made these well-known pieces simply cease to be standards and become his own, completely personal compositions. That was the heart of the matter as far as creativity was concerned – to squeeze something from which it seems difficult to squeeze anything anymore.