Ahmad Jamal and James Cammack©Howard Gitelson

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark will host a jazz event of historical proportions on Sunday, November 4th (5 pm) when piano legends Ahmad Jamal and Ramsey Lewis share the stage for the first time. Hosted by NJPAC’s Alternative Routes series, the pairing of these trios brings together two musicians whose popularity has never trumped their artistic vision. 

Of the living legends of jazz piano, perhaps none has exerted such wide influence on the genre as Ahmad Jamal. Now in his 70s, Jamal has been cited as a key muse by pianists as diverse as McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, and Mulgrew Miller; echoes of Jamal can be found in the playing of a younger generation, including Eric Reed and Jacky Terrasson; and trumpet legend Miles Davis was so impressed with Jamal's approach that he repeatedly sought pianists who could incorporate that sound in his early bands. Wrote Stanley Crouch in the Village Voice, "No musician has had a more profound effect on the orchestral approach to small groups in the last 35 years than Ahmad Jamal...He showed people how to italicize and magnify elements of music that were taken for granted, how to organize the sound of a group around the drums, and how to interchange the riff with the ostinato or the vamp...He is a virtuoso, but his innovations are found in his arrangements...." Recently Jamal was awarded the prestigious Officier de L'Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres of France. While his full body of work has redefined the jazz trio, recently Jamal has been experimenting with electric keyboards, strings, steel drums and saxophone. 

Ramsey Lewis

Seeing either Ahmad Jamal or Ramsey Lewis is always a treat, but on Sunday, November 4th, patrons of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center get a double dip of musical ambrosia when these two titans of jazz piano take the stage back to back.  

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center is located at 1 Center Street in Newark; tickets at www.njpac.org.  More about Ahmad Jamal at www.ahmadjamal.net; more about Ramsey Lewis at www.ramseylewis.com