From
Andrian Kreye
Ahmad Jamal is dead, the jazz pianist whose influence stretched from Miles Davis to hip-hop and who, like so many giants who shaped their time, initially simply thought differently than everyone else. At a time when pianists were transforming the energy of the big cities with their spirit of optimism into the economic boom of the post-war years into cascades of rhythm changes and rapid-fire solos, Jamal simply left room on his instrument for the nothing that can be so much louder than every chord and every note. With this reticence, he created an impetus that catapulted his music from the late 1940s to the present day.