Abdul-Malik, Ahmed (born Jonathan Timms)

Abdul-Malik, Ahmed (born Jonathan Timms), jazz bassist, oud (Middle Eastern lute) player; b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Jan. 30, 1927; d. Long Branch, N.J., Oct. 2, 1993. An early world music pioneer whose father was from Sudan, Abdul-Malik also played modern jazz with Art Blakey, Randy Weston, and, during 1957–58, with Thelonious Monk. He began violin at age seven, and also played cello, tuba, and piano. He performed in a band for Greek, Syrian, and gypsy weddings during junior high school. He later attended N.Y/s H.S. of Music and Performing Arts and played in the All City Orch.—he may have been on bass by then. Abdul-Malik became an established jazz bassist with Art Blakey (1945, 1948), Randy Weston (1957), Monk (1957–58), Earl Hines (1964), Ken Mclntyre (1971), and others. He also remained active in Middle Eastern music, playing the oud on a State Department tour of South America (prob. 1960) and presenting many programs at schools and colleges, mostly around N.Y. In 1961 he visited Africa. Four years later he began working toward a doctorate in music at the N.Y. Coll. of Music; later he taught at Brooklyn Coll. and, from 1970, at N.Y.U. Abdul-Malik was given the Pioneer in Jazz Award by BMI in 1984. A stroke impaired his speech and movement for several years before his death in 1993.

Discography

Jazz Sahara (1958); East Meets West (1959); Museum of Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1961); Sounds of Africa (1962); Eastern Moods of A. A.-M. (1963); Spellbound (1964).

—Lewis Porter