Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones; July 2, 1930 – April 16, 2023) was a jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator from the United States. He was one of the most effective small-group leaders in jazz for six decades. He was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy for his contributions to music history.

Who is Ahmad Jamal wife Laura Hess-Hay?

We’re not sure how many times he’s been married. According to reports, his first marriage ended in divorce in 1962, and he was hospitalized in 1963 following an apparent overdose.

Laura Hess-Hay, Ahmad Jamal’s third ex-wife and manager, survives him. The couple married in 1982, although it’s unclear when they divorced.

Meanwhile, Jamal was born Frederick Russell Jones on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began playing the piano when he was three years old when his uncle Lawrence challenged him to mimic what he was performing on the piano. Jamal began professional piano lessons at the age of seven with Mary Cardwell Dawson, whom he credits with influencing him significantly.

His Pittsburgh roots remained an essential part of his identity (“Pittsburgh meant everything to me and it still does,” he said in 2001), and it was there that he was exposed to jazz performers such as Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner.