{"id":263389,"date":"2026-08-11T18:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263389\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T18:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:02:09","slug":"jamals-archives-come-home-pittsburgh-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263389\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamal’s Archives Come Home | Pittsburgh Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ahmad<\/a><\/p>\n

PHOTO BY KAHMEELA ADAMS-FRIEDSON<\/p>\n

The boxes full of memorabilia arrived at the University of Pittsburgh Library System in August 2024. Inside lay a world of sound. Sheet music scribbled on staff paper and handwritten notes for compositions that might never have been recorded. A scrapbook lovingly assembled by a devoted mother. Photographs of a young prodigy \u2014 and the elder master he became.<\/p>\n

The collection of East Liberty-born jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal was donated to Pitt\u2019s Archives & Special Collections by his only child, Sumayah Jamal. She said that there \u201ccould be no better home\u201d for her father\u2019s materials than the university\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n

Jamal, who died at age 92 in April 2023, has an almost profound resonance to Pittsburgh\u2019s musical legacy. Born in 1930, Jamal grew up in East Liberty, attended Westinghouse High School and studied under Mary Cardwell Dawson, the renowned opera singer and founding director of the National Negro Opera Co. She signed a photograph encouraging his talent when he was about 5 years old.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the Jamal archive takes its place among a collection rich with Black cultural memory. The Pitt library team has collected primary source material of the city\u2019s Black community since 1964, beginning with papers from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It now stewards the papers of playwright August Wilson, saxophonist Sam Rivers and political leader K. Leroy Irvis. In the same archive \u201ccommunity\u201d are the papers and personal possessions of other writers, social leaders and creatives, including principals with the now-closed Kuntu Repertory Theatre, a student\/community-based troupe that highlighted Black culture and issues.<\/p>\n

Together, they trace the arc of Pittsburgh\u2019s African American creativity \u2014 contributing to what Jamal called the \u201cMiracle City\u201d because of how the Steel City\u2019s blend of culture, art and industry resonates far beyond its borders.<\/p>\n

Jamal made his mark in the \u201cMiracle City\u201d before carrying his sound to the world, selling millions of albums and influencing artists from Miles Davis to Jay-Z.<\/p>\n

The scope of his archive is staggering. It reveals the mind of a man who \u201cbreathed music,\u201d says Kallie Koch, music cataloger and archivist for the university library system, who processed sections of the collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fascinating to see how many of his scores were untitled,\u201d she says, noting the number of drafts in the collection. \u201cBut if you could read music, you could almost hear in your head what he was planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The materials move from analog to digital: reel-to-reel tapes and LPs alongside CDs, hard drives and Jamal\u2019s laptop, filled with his late-life recordings. Also gifted separately were two 9-foot-long Steinway grand pianos that Jamal treasured. One sits in the Department of Music at Pitt\u2019s Bellefield Hall; the other can be found at the Afro American Music Institute in Homewood.<\/p>\n

The institute was run by James \u201cDr. J.\u201d Johnson, a friend to Jamal who died in March at age 76. Ed Galloway, associate university librarian for Archives & Special Collections at the Pitt Library System, says Johnson described Jamal\u2019s piano as \u201cmagical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople sit down in front of it, and they lose time,\u201d Galloway says.<\/p>\n

Jamal\u2019s archive stretches well beyond music. There are personal letters, contracts, photographs and scrapbooks that likely his mother or another family member kept, documenting his journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scrapbook starts with the earliest articles about his career and ends in the late 1970s,\u201d says Kathryn Miller Haines, head of the Center for American Music with Pitt\u2019s Archives & Special Collections. \u201cIt tells the whole story.\u201d<\/p>\n

His faith runs through the papers as well. Jamal converted in 1950 to Islam in Detroit and lived as Ahmad Jamal for more than seven decades.<\/p>\n

The archive\u2019s reach is just beginning. Jamal\u2019s daughter has launched efforts to raise funds for a wing in his honor at the Afro American Music Institute. Pitt is preparing public programming, exhibitions and research opportunities that will let new generations encounter his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cAhmad Jamal\u2019s archive doesn\u2019t just preserve one man\u2019s genius,\u201d says Galloway. \u201cIt places Pittsburgh at the center of the global story of jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOTO BY KAHMEELA ADAMS-FRIEDSON The boxes full of memorabilia arrived at the University of Pittsburgh Library System in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111326,91164,73,75,74,2553],"class_list":["post-263389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-ahmad-jamal","tag-from-the-magazine","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-university-of-pittsburgh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}