Jamal

The widow of Jamal Khashoggi—a Saudi journalist brutally executed by intelligence agents for writing critically about the regime—is suing the NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance company allegedly responsible for creating malicious spyware surreptitiously installed on her and her late husband’s devices. Hanan Elatr believes communications gleaned from her device without her knowledge for nearly a year led to her husband’s detention and eventual grisly dismemberment by bone sawat the hands of Saudi assassins. Now, more than…

Dapper and sagacious, Ahmad Jamal may have looked more like a UN delegate than a jazz musician, but he was recognised as a truly great jazz artist by some of the music’s most notable pioneers. Jamal, who has died aged 92, was hailed in the 1940s and 50s by Art Tatum and Miles Davis, and more recently by McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett. In the 90s, when a jazz piano-trio renaissance was being led by gifted newcomers such as Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran, Geri Allen and Esbjörn Svensson, Jamal did not retire to the sidelines but…

Ahmad Jamal, the influential jazz pianist, composer and band leader, has died at the age of 92.His daughter, Sumayah Jamal, confirmed to the New York Times that the cause of death was prostate cancer.Embarking on a professional music career from the age of 14, over seven decades Jamal forged a unique sound that leapt over genre boundaries. Minimalism, classical, modernism, pop: Ahmad was sometimes likened to Thelonious Monk in terms of his ability to innovate and influence other musicians: his piano would be sampled by…

Ahmad Jamal, a pianist, composer and arranger whose innovative, chamber jazz style had a powerful impact on his contemporaries while gaining widespread popularity via such recordings as his bestselling interpretation of “Poinciana,” has died, according to the New York Times. He was 92.Jamal died Sunday of prostate cancer at his home in Ashley Falls, Mass., his daughter, Sumayah Jamal, confirmed to the New York Times.The crisp, carefully tailored but deeply swinging arrangements he created for his trios of the 1950s and…

Ed Sheeran has said that following the deaths of friends SBTV founder Jamal Edwards and the Australian cricketer Shane Warne in 2022, he “didn’t want to live any more”.Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine ahead of the release of his sixth album, – (Subtract), he said: “I have had that throughout my life. You’re under the waves drowning. You’re just sort of in this thing. And you can’t get out of it.”Sheeran, 32, said he worried that the thoughts were “selfish”, especially given that he is a father to two young girls. “I…

Last year, the industry was rocked by the devastating news of Jamal Edwards’ passing. Of course, his tireless work supporting new talent via SBTV changed the entire infrastructure of the music industry, but it was Jamal—the person—that will be missed the most. When the tragic news broke, countless people came forward to pay tribute to the young mogul who touched their lives.One of the more high-profile among them was Ed Sheeran who, before all of his fame, got one of his earliest breaks from an acoustic freestyle as part…

My year in books was dominated by autobiographies, with everyone from corporate game changers like Indira Nooyi and James Dyson to film personalities Onir and Divya Dutta jostling for attention. One book from this pile stood out for me for its honesty and insight. Its timelines were garbled and stories overlapped but that only added to the authenticity of what was being remembered.Kabir Bedi’s Stories I Must Tell gives an account of an unconventional life lived in the constant quest of success. On full display are the…

I first met Jamal, like so many musicians did, through SBTV, the company he set up when he was 16. He began it as a YouTube channel in 2006, the year after YouTube began, with a small camcorder and a phone. I met him in 2010, around the time his career and mine were starting to catapult.I did an F64 , an SBTV format of 64 bars of freestyle rap, with original lyrics, which went viral. Formats like that and SBTV’s warm-up sessions kicked off the careers of lots of artists, including Stormzy and Dave.He wanted to show kids…

| DC Comics promised us that the New Era of Superman would starts this January. And so it is.  It was revealed at New York Comic Con today that a brand-new Superman ongoing monthly series is launching in February 2023 from Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths writer Joshua Williamson and Naomi artist and co-creator Jamal Campbell. "Superman has returned to Metropolis and his greatest enemy Lex Luthor is finally behind bars. The future of the Superman family has never been brighter! As Clark Kent settles back into his life,…

Late last year, Ed Sheeran and Russ collaborated on a track called “Are You Entertained”, which just dropped today. The original plan had been for Jamal Edwards to direct the video, but he tragically passed away the day before shooting was to start.Since then, and with the encouragement of Jamal’s mother and sister, Ed and Russ have teamed up with a new director, Jake Nava, to instead shoot the video as a salute to Jamal, the lives he touched, and his monumental legacy in the music industry. The visuals landed alongside…