Ahmad Jamal Trio at The Colonial Theatre

After nearly a five-year absence from the Berkshires performance stage, Ahmad Jamal returns to western Massachusetts for a concert at the historic Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on Saturday, March 31, 8pm.

Ahmad Jamal is a true-blue American Jazz Master and musical legend, whose career transcends time. With six decades of musical validity and counting, he is acknowledged as one of the most innovative and influential American jazz pianists. Jamal is a composer, and educator who, according to critic and jazz historian Stanley Crouch, is second only to Charlie Parker in importance in the development of jazz after 1945. ...

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After nearly a five-year absence from the Berkshires performance stage, Ahmad Jamal returns to western Massachusetts for a concert at the historic Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on Saturday, March 31, 8pm.

Ahmad Jamal is a true-blue American Jazz Master and musical legend, whose career transcends time. With six decades of musical validity and counting, he is acknowledged as one of the most innovative and influential American jazz pianists. Jamal is a composer, and educator who, according to critic and jazz historian Stanley Crouch, is second only to Charlie Parker in importance in the development of jazz after 1945.

One of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz, Jamal started playing piano at the age of three, under the tutelage of an uncle, and began formal piano training at the age of seven. His group worked as the house trio at Chicago's Pershing Hotel, and in 1957 the trio released the live album But Not for Me, which stayed on the Ten Best-selling charts for 108 weeks. Jamal's well known song "Poinciana" was first released on this album, and it became –and remains-- one of the most widely recognized and appreciated jazz performances of all time.

Since the 1980s, Jamal has been regularly touring the major clubs of the United States and the large European jazz festivals. The French government inducted Ahmad Jamal into the prestigious Order of the Arts and Letters in 2007.

In 1994, Jamal received the American Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was also named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University.

Clint Eastwood featured two recordings from Jamal's But Not For Me album — "Music, Music, Music" and "Poinciana" — in the 1995 movie The Bridges of Madison County.

The Ahmad Jamal Trio performs at The Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street, Pittsfield, on March 31 at 8pm. Tickets: $15-$50.

wwwTheColonialTheatre.org, 413-997-4444.

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