Influential jazz pianist, innovator, composer and Pittsburgh native Ahmad Jamal died Sunday, April 16 at his home in Western Massachusetts. He was 92.

We at WZUM are saddened by the loss of this great original - a Westinghouse High School alum who started his career very early and left for Chicago in his early 20’s.

There have been many great articles and remembrances to share - and many good, personal stories for us to share. We will add more, but this is a start.

Author, historian and musician (and many other titles) Ted Gioia wrote on Sunday

Other musicians have changed the sound of jazz in various ways. But Ahmad Jamal actually transformed time and space.
It sounds like I’m describing Einstein or Kant. But those aren’t inappropriate comparison points for this seminal pianist, who left us earlier today at age 92. He opened up an alternative universe of sound, freer and less constrained than what we had heard before. The rules of improvised music were different after he appeared on the scene.

Jazz writer Marc Myers - who’s JazzTrax column is always a great read - shares insights from Ahmad Jamal that explain his style in a surprising way:

Ahmad went on to tell me that his approach with his right hand had much in common with the movement of felines. "I love cats," Ahmad said. "I used to raise cats when I was a kid. I can’t do it now because I’ve developed an allergic to them."

In the late 1980’s, Ahmad Jamal was so impressed with the new Jazz venue at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, he went with the MCGJazz team to Steinway to help select their new Steinway D Grand Piano.

In August 1990 (August 29-30 to be precise), I was involved with presenting Ahmad Jamal in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a benefit concert for the Grand Rapids Ballet, followed by a concert presented at the St. Cecelia Music Society (now Center) with my station WGVU, the West Michigan Jazz Society and St. Cecelia’s. I got to spend the better part of the week with the master, and we had special fun trying out each of the great pianos at St. Cecelia’s - some of them of a vintage back more than 100 years (this was the same music society where Clare Fisher studied music and played viola as a youth).

Thinking back to stories about Ahmad Jamal had me thinking about some of the music you may not hear as we celebrate his life and influence - like a recording from very early in his time in Chicago. He would have been in his mid twenties - this is from 1955.

Just to show you how interrelated things are -

Pavane is a tune by pianist, conductor, composer and arranger Morton Gould (who was also President of ASCAP, just as the digital revolution was taking hold in the 1980’s and 1990’s - fascinating guy).

Pavane was on the flip side of the 1939 Glenn Miller record, Little Brown Jug. So, a lot of people were familiar with it. In 1942, Morton Gould did his own version.

Move forward to 1955 - Ahmad Jamal, had moved to Chicago from Pittsburgh and national touring by 1952. He settled into the Pershing Hotel for a musical residency that shook the world.

Mind you, there were challenges. He told me years ago how some of his biggest hit recordings were done there on a piano with a cracked soundboard. Still, the magic he crafted over the years is rock solid.

1955 included this trio date with Israel Crosby, bass, and fellow Pittsburgh native Ray Crawford, guitar. No drums - but Ray Crawford does some wonderful percussion on his guitar.

It’s pretty stunning stuff, and amazing when you consider it is just piano, bass and guitar. As pianist Hal Galper noted in a 1999 interview, Ahmad Jamal has been an amazingly influential jazz performer - one whom all other musicians were well aware of. Especially Miles Davis in the 1950’s.

Part of the privilege of bringing great jazz to you is the make connections - between artists and to you as a listener. Ahmad Jamal was great at connecting - and we remember back to 2018 when he connected back to Chicago with a performance Friday night, October 12th at Symphony Center.

He made it back to Pittsburgh, too - including a wonderful event with the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra at the Byham Theater around the time of the G-20 back in the fall of 2009.

In 2013, Ahmad Jamal came back to MCG Jazz (one of many of his visits) for a special concert and fundraiser celebrating MCG Jazz Legends. He was proud of Pittsburgh but expressed great concern over the lack of the presence of jazz in the media in his hometown, but that Pittsburgh didn’t give jazz the notice its legacy should impute, from an article by Rory D. Webb in the Pittsburgh City Paper

You should see Duke Ellington every day on the tube, and so forth with Charlie Parker. It's the only art form that we have developed here in the United States besides American Indian art, so it should be treated as such. That's why you have people who know this raising money for buildings like the Jazz at Lincoln Center building ... the Allen room, Frederick Rose Hall and the Coca-Cola Club — Wynton Marsalis was very instrumental in putting that together. He comes from one of the most phenomenal [jazz cities], New Orleans. So those people know what the contribution of this art form has been for the entire world."
"What do we have in Pittsburgh that still plays American classical music, also known as jazz? What stations play jazz?" he asks.

Ten years after that visit, Pittsburgh DOES have jazz on the radio, day and night - and the scene is filled with fans and players from new generations and old.

Listeners and supporters of the Pittsburgh Jazz Channel are a part of these new connections - and we’ll keep sharing the music of Ahmad Jamal and many, many more innovators from here for many years to come!

Scott Hanley, WZUM

Downtown Pittsburgh before the G20, 2009 by Scott Hanley

October 2018 Ahmad Jamal Return to Chicago