Khan Jamal (July 23, 1946 – January 10, 2022), born Warren Robert Cheeseboro, was an American jazz

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

and

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

player. He founded the band Sounds of Liberation in 1970. He was described by

Ron Wynn Ron Wynn is a music critic, author, and AllMusic editor. Wynn was the editor of the first edition of '' The All Music Guide to Jazz'' (1994), and from 1993 to 1994 served as the jazz and rap editor of the ''All Music Guide''. Wynn is the former e ...

as "a proficient soloist when playing free material, jazz-rock and fusion,

hard bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...

, or

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

y fare."

Early life

Warren Robert Cheeseboro was born in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, on July 23, 1946. His father, Henry McCloud, worked as an entrepreneur; his mother, Willa Mae Cheeseboro, was a stride pianist. He was raised in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and began playing the

during the later part of his teenage years in the mid-1960s. Jamal attended the

Granoff School of Music The Granoff School of Music is a music school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Isadore Granoff (1902 - 2000), a Ukrainian immigrant. Alumni of Granoff include Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Fortune, and John Coltrane. Some of his student ...

and the

Combs College of Music Combs College of Music was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1885 as Combs Broad Street Conservatory of Music by Gilbert Raynolds Combs, celebrated pianist, organist and composer. The faculty included famous musicians such ...

Career

Jamal first played for a group called Cosmic Forces during the later part of the 1960s. He also played with The Sun Ra Arkestra. After leaving the group, he teamed up with several other of its former members to play with Sunny Murray's group Untouchable Factor. Jamal later co-founded Sounds of Liberation with Byard Lancaster in 1970. Its members included

Monnette Sudler Monnette Sudler (June 5, 1952 – August 21, 2022) was an American jazz guitarist from Philadelphia. Early life and career Sudler was born Monnette Goldman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Lea Goldman, married Truman W. Sudler in 19 ...

(guitar), Billy Mills (bass), Dwight James (drums), and Omar Hill and Rashid Salim (percussion). The band released its only album, titled ''New Horizons'', two years later on its own

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

Dogtown. However, it gained little impact outside Philadelphia at the time. The album was eventually reissued on Porter Records in 2010. This gave the group a new lease on life, culminating in the re-emergence of a recording made at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1973. It was ultimately issued in 2019 as ''Unreleased'' on Dogtown/Brewerytown. In addition to leading his own groups, Jamal performed with

Ronald Shannon Jackson Ronald Shannon Jackson (January 12, 1940 – October 19, 2013) was an American jazz drummer from Fort Worth, Texas. A pioneer of avant-garde jazz, free funk, and jazz fusion, he appeared on over 50 albums as a bandleader, sideman, arranger, and ...

's Decoding Society in the 1980s,

Joe Bonner Joe Bonner (April 20, 1948 – November 20, 2014) was a hard bop and modal jazz pianist, influenced by McCoy Tyner and Art Tatum. He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and studied at Virginia State College, but indicated that he lear ...

, Billy Bang, Charles Tyler and others. His first solo album was ''

Drum Dance to the Motherland ''Drum Dance to the Motherland'' (also referred to as ''Drumdance to the Motherland'') is a live album by jazz vibraphonist and marimba player Khan Jamal, his debut as a leader. It was recorded on October 7, 1972, at the Catacombs Club in Philadelp ...

'', a

live recording An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

that was held in a small café in his hometown and first released in 1973. It was reissued by

Eremite Records Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After college, ...

in 2006, with the label describing it as "the most legendary private press underground jazz album of the 1970s". Another solo album by Jamal, ''Infinity'' (1984), was reissued by Jazz Room in 2021 and dubbed

spiritual jazz Spiritual jazz (or astral jazz) is a sub-genre of jazz that originated in the United States during the 1960s. The genre is hard to characterize musically but draws from free, avant-garde and modal jazz and thematically focuses on transcendence ...

WBGO WBGO (88.3 FM, "Jazz 88") is a public radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. Studios and offices are located on Park Place in downtown Newark, and its transmitter is located at 4 Times Square in Manhattan. The station primarily plays ja ...

. Jamal's style connected the two contrasting forms of

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...

and

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

. He was also known for his skill of shifting modes and moods, as well as his versatile way towards music. He was a frequent performer at the

Vision Festival The Vision Festival is the world's premier festival of experimental music (typically free jazz/avant-garde jazz), art, film and dance, held annually in May/June on the Lower East Side of New York City from 1996 to 2011, in Brooklyn from 2012-2014, ...

Personal life

Jamal had two sons: Khan II and Tahir. He died on January 10, 2022, at the Chestnut Hill Hospital in

. He was 75, and suffered

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

prior to his death.

Discography

References

External links

* at

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

* at

allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jamal, Khan 1946 births 2022 deaths 20th-century African-American musicians American jazz vibraphonists CIMP artists Combs College of Music alumni Deaths from kidney failure Musicians from Jacksonville, Florida