The influential American jazz pianist, composer and bandleader Ahmad Jamal has died at the age of 92.

Jamal’s late 1950s trio is considered one of the most important piano-led groups of the post-bop era. His minimalist style and used of extended vamps was widely imitated and incorporated. Miles Davis counted Jamal among his influences for “his concept of space, his lightness of touch …”

Ahmad Jamal (1930–2023)

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jamal began playing piano aged three and began formal piano training at the age of seven. As he developed, he was influenced by jazz pianists including Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner. He was also drawn to the French composers Debussy and Ravel.

By 14, Jamal was playing professionally in the Pittsburgh scene.

“I used to practice and practice with the door open, hoping someone would come by and discover me,” Jamal once told The New York Times. “I was never the practitioner in the sense of twelve hours a day, but I always thought about music. I think about music all the time.”

In 1950, he moved to Chicago and performed intermittently with well-known local musicians such as Von...