Jamil Nasser

A top-flight hard bop and bebop bassist, Jamil Nasser also played blues and R&B and doubled on tuba. Nasser studied piano with his mother, then began on bass at 16. He led the band during his student days at Arkansas State University in the late '40s and early '50s, then played bass and tuba while in the Army. Nasser worked on electric bass with B.B. King after his discharge in 1955 and 1956, then moved to New York. He played and recorded with Phineas Newborn in 1956 and 1958, while working with Sonny Rollins. He toured Europe and North Africa with Idrees Sulieman in 1959, and recorded with Lester Young in Paris. Nasser lived in Italy in 1961, then returned the next year and formed a trio that he led until 1964. He worked eight years with Ahmad Jamal from the mid-'60s until 1972, then played periodically with Al Haig through the late '70s. Nasser did sessions in New York during the '80s and '90s, working with Clifford Jordan, among others. He recorded no dates as a leader, but can be heard on several early-'70s Jamal CD reissues. ~ Ron Wynn