Ahmad Jamal photo by Frank Capri

At 17, Jamal married, setting aside plans to attend Julliard, and embarked on a fulltime career as a musician. With a group called The Four Strings, then The Three Strings, the Ahmad Jamal trio evolved, first with bass and guitar, and later in the current piano, bass, and drum format. "Trying to follow in the footsteps of Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Bud Powell,'' as he said in an interview 30 years later, Jamal worked as a sideman in Chicago before forming his landmark trio with Israel Crosby and the great New Orleans drummer, Vernel Fournier, in the early 1950s.

Ahmad Jamaland James Cammack © Howard A. Gitelson

Yet, his orchestral treatment of the jazz trio, which elevated the bass and drum to play key roles in the whole, would be the hallmark of Ahmad Jamal’s music, and the ingredients that caught the ear of trumpet legend Miles Davis, who said, ''All my inspiration today comes from Ahmad Jamal.'' Davis went on to record some of Jamal’s compositions and incorporated Jamal tunes into his own repertoire, and would send his own bandmates (particularly Red Garland) to hear Jamal, seeking to incorporate this unique sound into their arrangements. Wrote Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune, “Jamal reveled in defying conventional approaches to the keyboard...the pianist manages to bring coherence to improvisations that shift constantly between swing rhythm and meterless playing, between single-note riffs and extended parallel chords in both hands.”

Over the years, Jamal continued to focus primarily on the trio format, occasionally exploring the electric piano and continually evolving his unique approach to space, dynamics, tension and release, the use of pedal tones, and superimposed chords that reflect the early influence of Ravel. Key recordings for Atlantic reinvigorated his reputation in the 1980s--Digital Works, Crystal, Pittsburg, Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival, and Rossiter Road. As his playing gained confidence over the years, his music developed greater spontaneity and complexity. "Jamal's colorful harmonic perception has been too often overlooked. He characteristically builds parallel and contrary motion lines that move in and out of chordal substitutions and alterations that would probably frighten pianists of less harmonic sensitivity... Jamal has brought the bass and drums into an independent but highly functional role in his conception of the piano trio" (Don Heckman, L.A. Times).

At times criticized or merely overlooked for his subtle and planful executions, Jamal's more recent performances and recordings have reflected a new-found spontaneity that "has completely integrated the lithe lyricism of old with the muscular passion of new" (Fred Kaplan). Wrote Ben Waltzer in the New York Times, "Where in his early work drama builds slowly and subtly, Mr. Jamal now follows whispers with primal screams. His playing has become utterly uninhibited, suffused with a kind of contagious joy whose emotional commitment makes nearly anything the band does work."

Ahmad Jamal

Of his drummer, New Orleans native Idris Muhammad, Jamal says, "Drummers such as Idriss enjoy this unique capability to endow rhythm with mobility and make it dance. While choosing a drummer I must be convinced by his sensibility. I don't have to set specific rules for playing. We only discuss special arrangements or the structure of a musical composition. Never of sound or sentence." Regarding bassist James Cammack, Jamal notes that "If he is still with me for so long, it is because he has exceptional ears. He is an extension of my left arm."

On Ahmad Jamal's 2003release, In Search of Momentum (Dreyfus), the pianist "has made some of his most inspired trio jazz in years" (Ted Panken, DownBeat). Listening to Jamal and his trio is like listening to a full orchestra; he covers a large sonic palette of complex harmonies and widespread dynamics. With the 2005 release of After Fajr (Dreyfus), “Ahmad Jamal continues to offer an uncompromising approach to his music with tasteful chord voicings, complex rhythmic tools, and with this recording - impressive vocal arrangements. His choice of repertoire continues to make him one of the most revered pianists on the international music scene” (Amazon.com). Notes fellow pianist Harold Mabern, "Every time I hear Ahmad, I leave inspired. He plays a three-chord masterpiece before he even sits down on the stool... It's his sound, his knowledge of chords, the way he orchestrates from the bottom of the piano to the top." Such inspiration awaits us at Catalina's.

"It's always exciting for me to sit down at the piano, and every time I do, something new happens, something surprises me, or I surprise myself...That's the reason there's no such thing as old music. The wonderful thing about music is that it's ageless."--Ahmad Jamal

Catalina's is located at 6725 West Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles; reservations and information at www.catalinajazzclub.com