Legendary pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal died on Sunday April 16, 2023, at his home. He was 92 years old.
He had inspired the greatest like Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett: Pianist Ahmad Jamal died, in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, this Sunday, April 16, 2023. He was suffering from prostate cancer and succumbed after a long period of struggle, “in the arms of his daughter”, announced his companion, Laura Hess-Hey, to the newspaper The Washington Post. “The cause of his death was related to a complication of prostate cancer,” added his daughter, Sumayah Jamal, to the same source. Ahmad Jamal was 92 years old.
Born on July 2, 1930 in Pittsburgh, the musician, born Frederick Russel Jones, will remain a jazz legend. Pianist and composer, he began his career very young, as a teenager. Ahmad Jamal began in orchestras or big bands, published his first 78 rpm in 1951 and influenced the greatest, from trumpeter Miles Davis to pianist McCoy Tyner, via Keith Jarrett.
Multi-awarded during his long career, Ahmad Jamal was made a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France in 2007 and was crowned with a Grammy Award for his entire career in 2017. Absolute legend of the piano jazz, follower of trios of musicians, he will have sold millions of copies throughout the world. In recent years, Ahmad Jamal had recorded his last album Balladsthe first solo piano, in 2019 at the age of 89.