Ahmad Jamal, Pioneering Jazz Pianist Who Influenced Both Miles Davis and Hip-Hop, Dies at 92
variety.comA.D. Amorosi Ahmad Jamal, one of the most elegant, eloquent and influential pianists and composers in modern jazz, died on Sunday, his wife, Laura Hess-Hey, and his daughter, Sumayah Jamal, told the Washington Pst.
The pianist was 92 and died in Ashley Falls, MA, after a battle with prostate cancer. Renowned for his economical and deliberate style, Jamal – born Frederick Russell Jones in Pittsburgh on July 2, 1930 – was an inspiration to jazz giants such as McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Bill Charlap and Miles Davis.
The latter famously recorded Jamal’s composition “New Rhumba” for his 1957 album “Miles Ahead.” In his 1989 autobiography, “Miles,” Davis stated that the pianist “knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement, and the way he phrases notes and chords and passages.” Davis is also renowned for saying, “All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.” Jamal’s spare sense of uncluttered, open rhythm was also, oddly, an influence on such great hip-hop producers as J Dilla (De La Soul’s “Stakes Is High”), DJ Premier (Gang Starr’s “Soliloquy of Sadness”), Pete Rock (on “M.O.P.’s “Stick to Ya Gunz,” and Ski (Jay-Z’s “Feelin’ It”), all of whom sampled some of the pianist’s finest, funkiest work.
As an improvisationalist, Jamal was free before free jazz was a thing, and utilized repetition and ostinatos as some of his earliest signature touches.
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