The other day I engaged my podcast partner, pianist Kevin Bales, in a discussion of pianists who have influenced him. There were many, he told me, and many more musicians other than pianists whose influences you can hear in his playing. But the one that stands out, at least to me in our discussion, and I think to Kevin as well, is Ahmad Jamal, who as Kevin said, “He does not play the piano like any other person anywhere. Everything about his playing is uniquely his.” Which of course is the essence of jazz, right? Improvisation, innovation, spontaneity: the epitome of musical self-expression.
Jamal’s uniqueness is twofold (at least): how he plays, his style, but also how he organizes the group, Kevin pointed out. In terms of style, “He’s completely different from other bebop players in that there’s no solo section. A bebop musician will play the melody of the song, maybe an arrangement of it, then solo over the chord progression for multiple choruses; maybe the bass player or saxophone player will do the same; then the melody again and out.” Jamal’s trio, the one with Vernel Fornier on drums and Israel Crosby on bass, probably his most famous trio, are all composing their parts from the beginning to the end. “You can listen to it and think that it’s a well-organized arrangement but it’s actually organic, completely democratic,” Kevin explained, and continued about Jamal: “He’s a virtuoso, the way he touches the piano, the way he makes tones; it’s uniquely his, and he is utterly committed to his way of playing; there’s really nothing else like it.”
Ahmad Jamal’s influence extends to many other great jazz musicians, including Miles Davis. His legacy, at least in part, like so many before him starting with Louis Armstrong, is in the music of many other great jazz musicians, who in the tradition of the genre, create their own approaches and styles from the influences of the geniuses who preceded them.