Legendary trumpeter Miles Davis wrote in his autobiography, "When people say Jamal influenced me a lot, they're right."Davis' reference to Jamal in this case is none other than the virtuoso pianist and astounding composer, Ahmad Jamal.
Born in 1930, Jamal, a Pittsburgh native, began playing the piano at the age of 3 and began formal studies on the instrument when he turned 7. Regarded as a musical prodigy, Jamal completed the equivalent of university music courses under the tutelage of concert signer Mary Cardwell and pianist James Miller as a high school student. Jamal began touring following his graduation from Westinghouse High School at 17. He declined his acceptance into Juilliard to tour with the George Hudson Band.
In terms of rhythm, Jamal honors the groove of each song by experimenting with diverse time signatures ranging from swing to tango to rhumbas while still sounding like jazz. However, jazz is another term Jamal tends to shy away from and calls it American classical music.
It's easily surmised one of the reasons why Jamal is such a dynamic pianist is because of his wide array of musical tastes and his training in both the classical and jazz idioms as a child.
Jamal recorded some of his most notable songs ("Ahmad's Blues," "New Rhumba" and "Excerpts from the Blues") and arrangements ("Billy Boy" and "Poinciana") during the 1950s. Miles Davis and composer Gil Evans, who are known for their collaborations together, used several of Jamal's pieces recorded on his first album with Argo Records on Davis' records, "Miles Ahead" and "Porgy and Bess."
In 1994, the National Endowment of the Arts awarded Jamal the American Jazz Masters fellowship award and Yale University named him a Duke Ellington Fellow. Director Clint Eastwood featured several of his compositions in the film "Bridges of Madison County."
Now at the age of 73, Jamal still tours and is currently playing with a small ensemble - drummer Idris Muhmmad and bassist James Cammack - promoting his latest work entitled, "In Search Of..."
Wy sat down with Jamal and talked about his career, life and his best work.
Wy: You declined your acceptance into Juilliard to go on tour with the George Hudson Orchestra and you never returned to attend the university. What do you think the road has taught you that perhaps would have been missing in the classroom?
Jamal: Well, I don't compare the two like that, because school is absolutely necessary. Application is necessary too, but knowledge is foremost and I don't recommend putting off the institution of higher learning for something else. I think one can always be on the road and one can always make the dollar, but education is something that is extremely valuable. I can't say that one replaces the other. I've received quite a bit of education traveling and it has really broadened my horizons, but I would have learned a great deal in college, too.
Your music so rhythmic and you've, in a sense, revolutionized the approach to writing songs for smaller groups. How do you think your style developed?
I think my style evolved from living in my hometown. Pittsburgh is a fabulous place to study music, so I think my style evolved because of my background. Growing up in Pittsburgh is incredibly interesting and it's one of the best places to grow up in if you are a musician. I was selling newspapers at Billy Strayhorn's (famous collaborator of Duke Ellington) family when I was 7 years old, so that's the kind of background there is in Pittsburgh. (Pianist) Erroll Garner, (guitarist) George Benson, (tenor saxophonist) Stanley Turrentine, (bassist) Ray Brown, (trumpeter) Roy Eldridge, (drummer) Art Blakey, all of us are from Pittsburgh. It's a very rich town for music. My hometown is what started me thinking orchestrally.
Because you are so well-versed in composing and arranging songs, do you find any distinctions in the two processes?
Well, arranging and composing pose some interesting steps in the development of a musician. I've always composed and all my compositions can be adapted orchestrally as in the case of Miles Davis' versions of my song "New Rhumba" with Gil Evans. All they did with that was take my arrangement for the small ensemble, and used it and adapted it to a large ensemble. Orchestration I think is an extension of composing. I think the composing comes first and the orchestration follows.
Your approach to the piano trio is rather unique. How would you define a trio?
I don't use the word trio anymore; for me the trio is very limiting. I'm not paranoid about it, but I just feel it's overused and very confining. When you say trio, it really doesn't describe the approach one has in music. You can have seven pieces and have a three-piece sound or you can have three pieces and get a seven-piece sound. I don't have a trio; I have a small ensemble or a large ensemble. Generally, I'm working with the small ensemble, which is piano, bass and drum setting. I like both the large and small ensembles. I've worked in every configuration known and unknown to man. I've been involved with records where I've written for some of the most talented voices in New York and I've done two choral projects made up of 22 voices. I like to write for voice since it's the oldest instrument in the world. I've also worked with just piano and saxophone; with large orchestras, symphony orchestras; and I've also grown up playing in every kind of ensemble there is, so I find all of it fascinating, but it's just that I can't travel with 80 pieces all the time. I find most of my work is done with a small ensemble. It's very practical, very demanding, very challenging and very rewarding. You have a lot of freedom.
Now that you're in your early 70s, is it true that you never stop learning as a musician?
Yes, I'm just beginning. That's the joy of music, discovering and rediscovering. It's the joy of life. As long as you are alive, you're a student and the only time you stop is when you're in the grave. Life is a learning process every day and you'd rather go forward than backward, of course. If you're pushing it then you move forward and if you're not then you go backward, but you're certainly not standing still. Nobody is standing still. There's no such thing. Life itself is the motivating force and if you're in tune to a degree with your surroundings and with the positive things in life, then you're going to be motivated to continue to produce. If you're not in tune, then you're not going to be able to produce.
Do you ever have what I guess you'd call a musician's block? How do you keep things fresh and original?
Oh my goodness, that's not hard. There are fresh things every day. As long as the vegetables are growing, then humans are continuing to grow. If you've done the right thing to a certain degree, then you're going to have positive results and the freshness will continue because every day is something new. I learn something every day, so it's automatic to keep churning because if you continue learning then you're going to keep churning.
You do such a wonderful job of improvising without sacrificing the groove of a song. How would you characterize the relationship between the groove and improvisation?
Well, people think improvisation is something that is accidental, but it's really an acquired art. Mozart improvised. Beethoven improvised. Bach improvised. Duke Ellington improvised. Most of us improvise. What we do is commit things to paper and give it some degree of permanency. It's nothing that happens accidentally, it requires a great deal of skill, and it is an acquired skill. You have to know the instrument to a certain degree and you have to think positive. Improvisation is something that some of us can't ever do. No matter how much you study, some just can't. Just like you have some writers and then you have writers. You have people who have worked in the literary field their whole life but can't seem to come up with one meaningful piece of work, which I think is a form of improvisation, too. So what you do if you get something you think is beyond trivial, then you commit it to paper. Some things I don't commit to paper because they are not important enough in my mind, but when I do think something is important, I commit it to paper. I think improvisation is something that is a part of life no matter what field.
How do you know if it's good enough to commit to paper?
Oh, you know. You know right away if it's something of value. Most of the time, if it's on paper it has some value and I'm not going to throw it away. What might happen is that my interpretation isn't solid enough or hasn't matured just quite yet. Maybe the writing is more advanced than I conceptualized at that time. There are pieces in my repertoire that I may resurrect that I've written 20 years ago. I just may have put them away for a while only to resurface again. Sometimes you encounter little discoveries that sometimes blossom within the bigger ones.
Now in looking back over your career, what album do you feel displays your most notable growth as a musician?
The next one (laughs). It's always the next one.
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