Critic Stanley Crouch cites AHMAD JAMAL's impact on the fresh form in jazz as an outstanding conceptionalist. Crouch consider's Mr. Jamal's distinctive style as having had an influence on the same level as "Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Theolonius Monk, Horace Silver and John Lewis, all thinkers whose wrestling with form and content influenced the shape and texture of the music, and whose ensembles were models of their music visions."

Considering his trio "an orchestra", Mr. Jamal not only achieves a unified sound, but subtly inserts independent roles for the bass and drums. The hallmarks of Mr. Jamal's style are rhythmic innovations, colorful harmonic perceptions, especially left hand harmonic and melodic figures, plus parallel and contrary motion lines in and out of chordal substitutions and alterations and pedalpoint ostinato interludes in tasteful dynamics. He also incorporates a unique sense of space in his music, and his musical concepts are exciting without being loud in volume. Augmented by a selection of unusual standards and his own compositions, Mr. Jamal impressed and influenced, among others, trumpeter Miles Davis. Like Louis Armstrong, Mr. Jamal is an exemplary ensemble player -- listening while playing and responding, thus inspiring his musicians to surpass themselves. Audiences delight in Mr. Jamal's total command of the keyboard, his charasmatic swing and daringly inventive solos that always tell a story.

Pianist Ahmad Jamal's intricate use of space and rhythm has created many haunting musical landscapes during his long career. Jamal greatly expanded the possibilities of the piano trio, and his compositions influenced Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In fact, Miles referred to Jamal as his favorite pianist saying all his inspiration comes from Jamal, and instructed his piano players to "play like Jamal."

Mr. Jamal was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy who began to play music at the age of 3 when his uncle Lawrence challenged him to reproduce the sounds of popular music on the piano. He began formal studies at age 7. While in high school, he completed the equivalent of college master classes under the noted African-American concert singer and teacher Mary Caldwell Dawson and pianist James Miller. Upon hearing pianist Erroll Garner, another Pittsburgh native, Jamal turned his attentions towards jazz.

Ahmad joined the musicians union at the age of 14, and he began touring upon graduation from Pittsburgh's prestigious Westinghouse High School at the age of 17, drawing critical acclaim for his solos. In 1950, he formed his first trio, The Three Strings. Performing at New York's The Embers club, Record Producer John

Unfortunately, the trio disbanded in 1962, when Crosby left to join pianist George Shearing. Jamal then formed a new trio with bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Chuck Lampkin. This trio released the album Macanudo among others. In 1967, Jamal released the album Standard Eyes and in 1968 he released Cry Young, which was a minor hit, spending several weeks on the pop album charts.

In 1969, Jamal began to release many different projects and materials focusing on different styles of music. The album The Awakening featured Jamal playing Brazilian songs such as Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Wave." Other albums from this period included Freeflight and Outertimeinnerspace, which displayed the pianist's abilities on the Fender Rhodes electric piano. Freeflight was Jamal's 1972 set at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Jamal continued to work with arranger Richard Evans in the 1970s recording Ahmad Jamal '73.

In 1951, Mr. Jamal first recorded Ahmad's Blues on Okeh Records. His arrangement of the folk tune Billy Boy, and Poinciana (not his original composition), also stem from this period. In 1955, he recorded his first Argo (Chess) Records album that included New Rhumba, Excerpts From The Blues, Medley (actually I Don't Want To Be Kissed), and It Ain't Necessarily So -- all later utilized by Miles Davis and Gil Evans on the albums "Miles Ahead" and "Porgy and Bess." In his autobiography, Mr. Davis praises Mr. Jamal's special artistic qualities and cites his influence. In fact, the mid-to-late 1950's Miles Davis Quintet recordings notably feature material previously recorded by Mr. Jamal: Squeeze Me, It Could Happen To You, But Not For Me, Surrey With The Fringe On Top, Ahmad's Blues, On Green Dolphin Street and Billy Boy.

In 1956, Mr. Jamal, who had already been joined by bassist Israel Crosby in 1955, replaced guitarist Ray Crawford with a drummer. Working as the "house trio" at Chicago's Pershing Hotel drummer Vernell Fournier joined this trio in 1958 and Mr. Jamal made a live album for Argo Records entitled But Not For Me.

The resulting hit single and album, that also included Poinciana -- his rendition could be considered his "signature". This album remained on the Ten Best-selling charts for 108 weeks -- unprecedented then for a jazz album. This financial success enabled Mr. Jamal to realize a dream, and he opened a restaurant/club, The Alhambra, in Chicago. Here the Trio was able to perform while limiting their touring schedule and Mr. Jamal was able to do record production and community work.

Mr. Jamal has continued to record his outstanding original arrangements of such standards as I Love Your, A Time For Love, On Green Dolphin Street (well before Miles Davis!), End of a Love Affair, to cite a few. Mr. Jamal's own classic compositions begin with Ahmad's Blues (first recorded on October 25, 1951!), New Rhumba, Manhattan Reflections, Tranquility, Extensions, The Awakening, Night Mist Blues and most recently If I Find You Again, among many others..

In 1994, Mr. Jamal received the American Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The same year he was named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University, where he performed commissioned works the Assai String Quartet. A CD is available of these works.

In 1970, Mr. Jamal performed the title tune by Johnny Mandel for the soundtrack of the film Mash!; and in 1995, two tracks from his hit album But Not For Me -- Music, Music, Music, and Poinciana -- were featured in the Clint Eastwood film The Bridges of Madison County.

Mr. Jamal's 'About My Life' story in his own words:

At three years of age, my wonderful Uncle Lawrence stopped me while I was walking past the piano in my parents' living room. He was playing the piano and challenged me to duplicate what he was doing. Although I had never touched this or any piano, I sat down and played note for note what I had heard. "The rest is history."

What a thrilling ride it has been and continues to be. I was born in one of the most remarkable places in the world for musicians and people in the arts - Pittsburgh, PA. At seven years, I was selling newspapers to Billy Strayhorn's family. Billy had already left home; I didn't get to meet him until years later. Following is a partial listing of "Pittsburghers:"

George Benson
Roy Eldridge
Art Blakey
Errol Garner
Kenny Clarke
Earl "Fatha" Hines
Billy Eckstein
Phyllis Hyman
Maxine Sullivan
Gene Kelly

Stanley Turrentine
Joe Kennedy, Jr.
Earl Wild
Oscar Levant
Mary Loe Williams
Lorin Maazel
George Hudson (his orchestra was my first job away from home, I was 17 and just out of high school.)
Dodo Marmarosa
Dakota Staton
Billy Strayhorn

At seven years of age I began my studies with a wonderful woman, Mary Cardwell Dawson. In addition to her great influence on me, she was very influential in the careers of many musical personalities on a local, as well as worldwide basis. One of her students is my life long friend, violinist, Joe Kennedy, Jr. Later, while still in my teens, I began studying with James Miller, as a result of Mrs. Dawson's relocation to Washington, D.C.

After touring with George Hudson's Orchestra, I traveled to Chicago with The Four Strings, a group headed by violinist, Joe Kennedy, Jr. Unfortunately, the group disbanded because of a lack of employment and in 1951, I formed The Three Strings.

The year 1951 was the beginning of my recording career. "Ahmad's Blues," which I wrote in 1948 during my stint with a song and dance team out of East St. Louis, was one of my first recordings; "Ahmad's Blues" has been heard in the stage play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," and recorded by Marlena Shaw, Natalie Cole, Red Garland and others. The first session also included my arrangement of the folk tune, "Billy Boy," which arrangement was copied by many of my peers. I wrote "New Rhumba" around 1951 and it has also been recorded and performed by many others, most notably Miles Davis. My most famous recording was done in Chicago in 1958 at the Pershing Hotel with two of the most talented musicians of the century, Israel Crosby and Vernell Fournier.

   Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal remains one of the few elder statesmen left in the ever-shrinking pantheon of certified jazz legends. He has not stopped touring and recording since he burst onto the scene in the early '50s, making music that would later inspire the rising Miles Davis, who cited the pianist as one of his greatest influences.

How fortunate we are then to be blessed with numerous opportunities to hear this national treasure. Joining Jamal is his regular rhythm section of James Cammack (bass) and Idris Muhammad (drums), as well as percussionist Manolo Badrena, who has perhaps the largest influence on the album's overall sound. This release doesn't give us the light and fanciful Jamal stylings one might be familiar with from the essential Legendary Okeh and Epic Recordings. Thanks to Badrena, It's Magic possesses aggressive, pulsating Latin and African influences, most easily detected on the Jamal originals "Swahililand," "Back To the Island" and album highlight, "Arabesque."

The listener does get a few breathers, though, and for good reason. Jamal's liner notes explain that the album is a tribute to his late friend and producer Jean-Fran?ois Deiber, memorialized by a thoughtful medley of "Wild Is the Wind" and "Sing," the latter a tune originally performed on Sesame Street. The title track also offers a time for reflection, but Jamal, as always, steers his slower numbers away from the melancholy and directly towards the cool. If you're a Jamal beginner and curious to check him out, it might be wiser to use the aforementioned '50s Okeh and Epic set as your jumping-off point. After you understand why he's earned his impeccable reputation, then give It's Magic a spin.

With a recording career stretching back to the early 1950s, Ahmad Jamal proved to be a huge influence on artists such as Miles Davis and Gil Evans. Having won numerous awards, and provided soundtrack material for films such as THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, and MASH, Jamal is rightly lauded throughout the business. This releases sees him performing at the Baalbeck festival in 2003, in which he attempts to cover all areas of his lengthy, and diverse, career. His mastery of the piano is a wonder to behold, and an object lesson for all aspiring players to follow. Over the space of 12 songs, Jamal manages to work an incredible array of ideas into his music, providing an inspirational set which belies his age and lengthy tenure in the business.

       By Graham L.