PITTSBURGH — Ahmad Jamal bolted out of Pittsburgh at 17 with his cap and gown practically flying in the breeze, but you can't say he never looked back.
The legendary jazz pianist, who died Sunday at 92 at his home in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, from complications of prostate cancer, maintained a fondness for the city where he was born and raised — even naming a 1992 album simply "Pittsburgh."
Jamal, whose childhood nickname was Fritz, was born into a Baptist family, the son of a domestic worker mom and steelworker father. Spurred on by his Uncle Charlie, he began playing piano by the age of 3. By 7, he was training with Mary Cardwell Dawson, a North Carolina native who studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and who was running the Cardwell Dawson School of Music in Homewood.
