And what fascinates you most about Jazz?
What fascinates me most about Jazz is the confusion about the world itself – that’s what fascinates me. The confusion – because to me there is no such thing as Jazz! Duke Ellington never called himself a Jazz musician. Count Basie never called himself a Jazz musician. And that’s what fascinates me – the way we have sophisticated such an unsophisticated term. We have made it very sophisticated but the term itself was unsophisticated and never intended to become this sophisticated. They call this music Jazz – It is not Jazz, it’s American Classical Music – that’s what it is, or whatever you want to call it. I call it American Classical Music – I started this term!

What is the challenge in playing American Classical music?
To me it’s the greatest music challenge in the world. Because in order to play so called Jazz you have to know Debusy, you have to know Duke Ellington you have to know Ravel you have to know Liszt you have to know Count Basie you have to know Art Tatum you have to know all these forms. You have to know the best of both worlds. The musician whose playing first violin in a symphony is one dimensional, he only has to know one thing. We have to be multi-dimensional, we have to know all these forms in order to be successful. You have to know Mozart... A classical example is Marcelus. You will never find this type of person in the so called classical community. You can only find such people in the Jazz community, because we are multi-dimensional. So in the sense we are the superior musicians – people don’t like me to say that but it’s the truth, cause we have to know all forms. That’s why Art Tatum was so fascinating to many so called classical players because he was so technically proficient beyond comprehension. Fats Wallum – beyond comprehension. And it goes on and on – Benny Goodman he also was multi-dimensional, and he preferred to do so called Jazz – he preferred to be with Teddy Willson, Lionel Hampton, Gene Cooper etc.

Looking in the dictionary under Jazz you will find: Improvised music – What is the difficulty about improvising ?
Every musician improvises – Mozart improvised. So that’s another misconception. They think improvisation is just for Jazz – that’s crazy. All musicians improvise what makes it a permanent record is when they write it on manuscript – otherwise it’s improvisation. It comes out of their mind. Bach was improvising Liszt was improvising. There is much of Mozart’s work you never gonna find cause he never wrote it down. There is no musician who is able to write down everything what comes out of his mind! Now there are sections within the written form where you become a solist. That’s another aspect of improvisation. But you are a solist at that point, and you do your improvising as a solist and you don’t have time to write down everything you are playing as a solist – So this is the fascinating thing about Jazz. You have Improvisation within Improvisation!

Are you religious? And does it influence your music in any way?
Isn’t anyone religious?

Does it influence you and your music?
Of course it is influencing me. Any philosophy invades the whole body, mind, spirit. That’s first! What I think philosophically it’s nummero uno – it’s the most important thing. Without that is nothing. I don’t want a doctor performing an examination on me that doesn’t believe in anything. That’s an inferior doctor. I don’t want to be anybody that has no believe, that believes that there’s nothing but him or her!

He believes in himself!
It’s impossible to have confidence without some believe. You can not be confident if you have not established a believe in the creative – you have to have believe in something that’s controlling the universe – a power that controls the universe. And it’s not you it’s not me it’s not Bill Clinton or Jelzin.

How strong do you think is your influence in other musicians?
What do you think how strong it is? You should know more about that than me! I’m too busy with myself to think of my influence on other musicians. I don’t know if I’m influencing. I want to influence me – but if I am influencing somebody out there – good!

What was the best album you’ve ever recorded?
One of my best recordings "Jamal in Paris" – these are the two best. It’s a wonderful recording! I love it! It has the energy that you don’t hear nowadays on recordings. As the same energy that was captured on jealous at the philharmonic with Norman G. He used to record everybody on location. He recorded Art Tatum, Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald etc.
You can’t get that energy in the studio! You can only get it on location!

Where are you living now?
I’m living in the country upstate in New York! Living there is very quiet and tranquil – that’s good for working! I love it!

In what way have you been influenced by African and oriental music?
I think inharitly – I don’t concentrate on thinking in terms. I started playing when I was three years old. That’s very young - so everything I heard goes in my brain. Music universal – I played Cuban, I played Brazilian, I played American, European, Chinese, middle Eastern – all concepts. All these tonalities are in my head anyway, so inharitly I play like that!

The album ‘Nature’ was a great success! Are you already working on a new album after this Paris album?
Not consciously. No. I do not go in the studio often. It’s difficult to think in terms like going in a studio. I only go in a studio when I feel like it! I don’t say: I make this right now! I don’t believe in going to a studio to make a record – that’s stupid. You go to a studio when you have something to say that means something! You have nothing to say – don’t go to the studio!

Don’t you have something to say?
I always have something to say. But it has to be strong enough for me to say: OK this is it! You have to have something strong enough to go to the studio! If I have something that’s not strong enough – I don’t write it!
I have a thousand melodies in my head, but I don’t write them all down. I write down the jewels. So when I have a jewel I go to studio! Jewels are hard to find – you have to dig!

What’s your philosophy for live and music?
Try to increase your knowledge every day! Everything depends on the knowledge that one possesses. You have to increase it. And you have to have correct knowledge. Not negative knowledge, just positive knowledge. That’s the way you gonna make it in this world. An example is a doctor: he wants to save people – so he has to study! A teacher: if you want to teach kids you have to study, because if you don’t teach a kid proper you may make a monster out of him!

Do you think that music has got a message?
Always! Music shapes the philosophy of the population – What would the world be without music? Could you imagine a world without music? But look at the stuff they write now! To call this stuff music is horrible! It’s creating a Frankenstein monster. You put two infants in a room, who never heard anything! One of them you feed with Rock, Punk, Acid all these forms that has nothing to do with music. The other one you feed with Duke Ellington, Ravel, Debussy, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Billy Holiday, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson etc. Which is gonna come out as a Frankenstein monster and which as a little angel?
So music can shape the philosophy of the people. That’s why it’s so important that we start becoming serious because there is to much stuff which is not good for the spirit, for the heart and it’s not good for the ears.
For what are they recording this? Because it’s making money? Crack is making money too! Crack was sold more than Madonna or the Rolling Stones, but that doesn’t make it right!

Why do you think people are listening so much to this stuff?
Because that’s what is given to them! If people only know the neck of a chicken they’ll throw away the rest! If they only know the neck, they think it’s the best part of the whole. So people are subject to the power structure – the people at the top. And because they accept this they accept all this bad music and the other junk! It’s crazy!

And why do you think some musicians are making such bad stuff?
Not the musicians are running the record business - The lawyers run the record business! And it’s produced because people don’t care about anything but money. But do you know what make the record business? – People like Louis Armstrong or Nat King Cole. At the beginning of every record company there was a Louis Armstrong or a Dave Brubak and no Rolling Stones or Beatles. But although people like Art Tatum, Duke Ellington or John Coltrane are dead the music is still out there, and it sells without being promoted! And it’ll be also there when all the junk is forgotten. But nowadays some people are sick – we got sick people who want the illusion.

Thank you for this interview Mr. Jamal