Ahmad Jamal dies at 92: Acclaimed jazz pianist who influenced Miles Davis
Ahmad Jamal dies at 92: Acclaimed jazz pianist who influenced Miles Davis
Image source, AFP
Acclaimed jazz pianist, composer and bandleader Ahmad Jamal died aged 92, his wife said.
The cause was prostate cancer, his daughter Sumayah Jamal told The New York Times.< /p>
Ahmad Jamal was a longtime friend of jazz icon Miles Davis and influenced a generation of musicians.
He was known for his sparse playing style - often placing silence between notes - and critics praised his "less is more dynamic".
Jamal, who called jazz "classical American music", said during his life that he loved to honor what he described as the spaces of music.
He began his seven-decade jazz career as a teenager in the bebop era of virtuoso stagecraft – but his style evolved rapidly.
His laid-back approach quickly became influential and commercial success followed with his 1958 album At the Pershing: But Not for Me - one of the instrumental records best-selling of its time.
In an article written last year to mark the release of some of his unreleased recordings, The New Yorker magazine wrote that in the 1950s, " its musical concept was one of the great innovations of the time, even if its sober and audacious originality escaped many listeners".
The friend Jamal's longtime trumpeter Miles Davis once said, "All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal."
Acclaimed jazz pianist, composer and bandleader Ahmad Jamal died aged 92, his wife said.
The cause was prostate cancer, his daughter Sumayah Jamal told The New York Times.< /p>
Ahmad Jamal was a longtime friend of jazz icon Miles Davis and influenced a generation of musicians.
He was known for his sparse playing style - often placing silence between notes - and critics praised his "less is more dynamic".
Jamal, who called jazz "classical American music", said during his life that he loved to honor what he described as the spaces of music.
He began his seven-decade jazz career as a teenager in the bebop era of virtuoso stagecraft – but his style evolved rapidly.
His laid-back approach quickly became influential and commercial success followed with his 1958 album At the Pershing: But Not for Me - one of the instrumental records best-selling of its time.
In an article written last year to mark the release of some of his unreleased recordings, The New Yorker magazine wrote that in the 1950s, " its musical concept was one of the great innovations of the time, even if its sober and audacious originality escaped many listeners".
The friend Jamal's longtime trumpeter Miles Davis once said, "All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal."
Image source, AFP
