In the late ’40s, when bebop was burning hot, pianist Ahmad Jamal helped cool it down. Born Frederick Russell Jones in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1930, Jamal began playing professionally at age 14 and released the first of many piano-trio albums in 1951, a year after changing his name and converting to Islam. He had a hit in 1958 with At the Pershing: But Not for Me, which featured his version of “Poinciana”, leading Miles Davis to praise his “concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement”. Having made more than 60 albums over nine decades, Jamal continued recording and playing until his death in 2023 at the age of 92.