Ahmad Jamal was an American jazz pianist, songwriter, bandleader, and teacher. He was born Frederick Russell Jones on July 2, 1930, and died on April 16, 2023. He was one of the best small-group jazz leaders for over 60 years. He got a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for his contributions to music history. In this piece, we talk about how much money he had at his death.
Ahmad Jamal: Early Life Details
Frederick Russell Jones was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is where Jamal was also born. He started playing piano when his uncle Lawrence told him to do what he was doing on the piano. This was when he was three years old. Jamal began piano lessons with Mary Cardwell Dawson when he was seven. He says that she had a significant impact on him. His roots in Pittsburgh were essential to his identity (“Pittsburgh meant everything to me, and it still does,” he said in 2001).
Jazz musicians like Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner significantly impacted him. Jamal also studied piano with James Miller and started playing professionally at age 14. At that time, pianist Art Tatum saw him as a “coming great” and told him so. When The New York Times reviewer asked Jamal how he practices, he said, “I used to practice and practice with the door open, hoping that someone would come by and find me.” I never practiced music for twelve hours daily but always thought about it. I always think about music.
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Ahmad Jamal: Career Details
After he graduated from George Westinghouse High School in 1948, Jamal went on the road with George Hudson’s Orchestra. He joined The Four Strings, a traveling band that broke up when violinist Joe Kennedy Jr. left. In 1950, he went to Chicago, where he sometimes played with local musicians Von Freeman and Claude McLin and sometimes at the Palm Tavern, where drummer Ike Day sometimes joined him.
In 1964, Jamal started performing and recording again with bassist Jamil Nasser. In 1965, they made a new album called Extensions. From 1964 to 1972, Jamal and Nasser continued to play and record together. He also worked with Fournier (again, for about a year), drummer Frank Gant (1966–76), and others. Up until 1970, he only played the electric piano. The Awakening was the last record on which he played the acoustic piano in the usual order. In the 1970s, he also played electric piano.
One of his recordings was an instrumental version of “Suicide is Painless,” the theme song from the 1970 movie MASH. This version replaced the original vocal version of the song by The Mash on a 1973 reissue of the film’s music album. It was said that the Rhodes piano came from Switzerland as a gift. During the 1970s and 1980s, he kept playing, mostly in trios with piano, bass, and drums, but sometimes he added guitar to the group. From 1979 to the 1990s, he led the band for the New Year’s Eve parties at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C.
Jamal kept touring and recording well into his 80s. He released CDs like Saturday Morning (2013), Ahmad Jamal Featuring Yusef Lateef Live at L’Olympia (2014), and Marseille (2017), which has French vocals. Hiromi Uehara, who plays jazz piano like no one else, learned a lot from Jamal. In 1986, Jamal sued writer Leonard Feather for writing about him under his old name.
Ahmad Jamal: Net Worth 2023
At the time of his death, Ahmad Jamal was worth about $5 million, according to estimates.
Ahmad Jamal: Death
Jamal died in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, on April 16, 2023. Prostate cancer causes problems that lead to death.
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