Jamil Nasser


Jamil Nasser and also credited on some of Ahmad Jamal's recordings as Jamil Sulieman, was an American jazz musician. He played double bass, electric bass, and tuba.

Biography

Nasser, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, learned piano from his mother as a child and started playing bass at age 16. As a student at Arkansas State University, he led the school band, and played bass and tuba in bands while stationed in Korea as a member of the U.S. Army. Following his discharge, he played with B.B. King in 1955 and 1956.
He moved to New York City in 1956, and played with Phineas Newborn and Sonny Rollins before the end of the decade. He began his recording career in 1956 with Newborn. He was originally credited on the recordings he made from 1956 - 1963 using his given name, George Joyner..
Nasser toured Europe and North Africa with Idrees Sulieman in 1959, then visited Paris and recorded with Lester Young. He briefly moved to Italy in 1961. After returning to New York in 1962, he formed his own trio, which lasted until 1964.
Following this, he joined Ahmad Jamal's trio, where he stayed through 1972. On the albums he recorded with Jamal, he was initially credited as Jamil Sulieman, and as Jamil Nasser, the name he used professionally for the rest of his life. After leaving Jamal's trio, Nasser worked with Al Haig for the rest of the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, he participated in many sessions with musicians such as George Coleman, Harold Mabern, Randy Weston, Gene Ammons and Hideaki Yoshioka but never recorded as a leader.
Nasser died of cardiac arrest at age 77 in Houston, Texas on February 13, 2010.
His son Zaid Nasser is an alto saxophonist based in New York City. Another son, Muneer Nasser, is a musician, historian, and author of Upright Bass, The Musical Life and Legacy of Jamil Nasser, published in 2018.

Discography

With Gene Ammons
  • The Big Sound
  • Groove Blues
With Evans Bradshaw
With George Coleman
With Eric Dolphy
  • The Berlin Concerts
With Lou Donaldson
With Red Garland
  • All Mornin' Long
  • High Pressure
  • Soul Junction
  • Dig It!
  • Rojo
With Al Haig
  • Strings Attached
  • Chelsea Bridge
  • Interplay
  • Serendipity
  • Manhattan Memories
  • A Portrait of Bud Powell
  • Reminiscence
  • Ornithology
  • Expressly Ellington
With Ahmad Jamal
  • Naked City Theme
  • The Roar of the Greasepaint
  • Extensions
  • Rhapsody
  • Heat Wave
  • Cry Young
  • The Bright, the Blue and the Beautiful
  • Tranquility
  • Ahmad Jamal at the Top: Poinciana Revisited
  • The Awakening
  • Freeflight
  • Outertimeinnerspace
  • Jamalca
  • Jamal Plays Jamal
  • Genetic Walk
  • The Essence Part One
  • Big Byrd: The Essence Part 2
With Melba Liston
  • Melba Liston and Her 'Bones
With Harold Mabern
  • Pisces Calling
With Herbie Mann, Charlie Rouse, Kenny Burrell and Mal Waldron
  • Just Wailin
With Phineas Newborn, Jr.
  • Phineas' Rainbow
  • While My Lady Sleeps
  • Fabulous Phineas
With Randy Weston
  • New Faces at Newport
  • Little Niles
  • Portraits of Duke Ellington
  • Portraits of Monk
  • Self Portraits
  • Spirits of Our Ancestors
  • Volcano Blues
With Hideaki Yoshioka'
  • ''Moment to Moment''