About Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator. For six decades, he was one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. He was a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master and won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy for his contributions to music history. Although Jamal is famous for his restrained playing style, he possessed an enormous piano technique from an early age and was playing Liszt etudes in competition as young as 11 years old. Hammond, a record producer who discovered the talents and enhanced the fame of musicians like Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Count Basie, helped Jamal's trio attract critical acclaim. Born to Baptist parents, Jamal became interested in Islam and Islamic culture in Detroit, where there was a sizeable Muslim community in the 1940s and 1950s.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.