EARLY AHMAD

The holy Trinity of my piano icons when I was young and attempting to play jazz piano in clubs were Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal. I couldn't come close to Monk of course, but I bent down over the piano in imitation of Evans and did my best to get his light touch (though no one can match it, Bill Charlap comes closest), but Ahmad Jamal I was most able to sound something like now and then when I was lucky.

Here's a rough and mislabeled and badly edited but nonetheless historic clip from a live TV performance with jazz greats looking on as the young Ahmad impresses his elders with his skill and innovative genius: