Ahmad Jamal, famous American jazz pianist, composer and conductor, has died at the age of 92, French and American media announced on Sunday.
The artist’s widow, Laura Hess-Hey, has confirmed his death, the Washington Post reported.
His daughter Sumayah Jamal told the New York Times that he has 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 converted to Islam in 1950 – has received numerous awards during his seven-decade career.
Notably, he was made a Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2007 and had won a Grammy Award for his entire career in 2017.
The African-American began his career in the 1940s during the bebop revolution and helped bring jazz to a wider audience.
His style is based on surprises, breaks, the use of silence, with romantic accents, with a phrasing that is both dynamic and light.
The New Yorker, in an article published last year to mark the release of several unreleased recordings, said that during the 1950s “his musical concept was one of the great innovations of the time, even if its stripped-down and bold originality has eluded many listeners.” .
The 1958 album Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not for Me marked the beginning of his success.
It stayed on the Billboard charts, the American ranking of the most popular titles, for more than 100 weeks.
According to the New York Times, it became one of the best-selling instrumental records of the time. Dozens more followed in what The Times called a “jeweled catalogue”.
In an interview with The Times in late 2022, Ahmad Jamal said: “I’m still evolving every time I sit down at the piano.” “I always have new ideas,” he added.