American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal passes away at 92

Ahmad Jamal a towering and influential US pianist composer and band leader whose career spanned more than seven decades and helped transform jazz pop and hiphop has died at age 92Jamal released about 80 albums building friendships and influence with greats such as Miles Davis and was sampled by rappers including Nas helping to lure a larger pop audience to jazzHe won myriad awards over the course of his career including Frances prestigious Ordre des Arts and des Lettres in 2007 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017Born Frederick Russell Jones in a humble suburb of Pittsburgh in 1930 he first sat down at a piano when he was three years old and began studying music seriously when he was sevenHe converted to Islam and changed his name when he was 20 though he avoided the more political side of the eras Black Power movement putting his focus on a search for peaceThe jazz scene he entered in the 1950s was often characterised by a hectic explosive styleBy contrast Jamals playing was spartan and reserved surprising his audience with long empty stretches sudden breaks and romantic flourishes It took a while for people to catch onHis musical concept was one of the great innovations of the time even if its spare audacious originality was lost on many listeners the New Yorker wrote last year But many were paying close attentionThough they never collaborated Davis often paid homage to Jamal In his autobiography Davis wrote Jamal knocked me out with his concept of space his lightness of touch his understatement and the way he phrased notes and chords and passagesHe worked in a trio most notably with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernel Fournier with whom he recorded his breakthrough album 1958s Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing But Not for Me which stayed on the Billboard magazine charts for more than 100 weeks becoming one of the bestselling instrumental records of its timeAlternative universeUS music critic Ted Gioia wrote that Jamal 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 sceneThe Awakening from 1970 developed the sound a fine example of Jamals stately and understated elegance in the words of Pitchfork but it also had a long afterlife influencing hiphop artists in the coming decades sampled most famously by Nas on his 1990s hit The World is YoursJamal never stopped experimenting bringing in explosive percussionist Manolo Badrena in the 1990s and still recording critically lauded work into his late 80sI live an exciting life and when you live an interesting life you keep discovering Jamal told AFP during a visit to France in 2012Musicians blossom and build themselves Some basic things are still there in my music the melodic sense for example but the density of sound has changed with age and the rhythmic part has become more elaborate he addedHis death reportedly from prostrate cancer was confirmed to US media by his familyAlso Read Essential works of Dr BR Ambedkar one must read to understand casteThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever