Ahmad Jamal, famous American jazz pianist, composer and conductor, has died at the age of 92, his partner, Laura Hess-Hey, has announced to the newspaper. the washington post.
His daughter Sumayah Jamal also told the New York Times that the artist suffered from prostate cancer. Ahmad Jamal has influenced the work of famous musicians such as trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist McCoy Tyner.
Ahmad Jamal, born Frederick Russell Jones in Pittsburgh and who converted to Islam in 1950, received multiple awards during his seven-decade career. Most notably, he was knighted in France’s Order of Arts and Letters in 2007 and won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award for him in 2017.
African American, he began his career in the 1940s during the bebop revolution and helped bring a wider audience to jazz. His style is described as based on surprise, ruptures, the use of silences, with romantic accents, with a phrasing that is both dynamic and light.
“One of the great novelties of the time”
HE New YorkerIn an article published last year to mark the release of several previously unreleased recordings, he said that in the 1950s “his musical concept was one of the great innovations of the age, though his stripped-down, daring originality eluded many listeners.”
the scrapbook Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But not for me, released in 1958, marked the beginning of his success. It spent more than 100 weeks on the Billboard chart, the US ranking of the most popular titles.
According New York Times, became one of the best-selling instrumental records of the time. Dozens of others followed in what the Times he called it a “catalog full of jewelry.”
In an interview granted to Times in late 2022, Ahmad Jamal said, “I keep evolving, every time I sit down at the piano.” “I always have new ideas,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
