If you aren’t listening to pianist Ahmad Jamal’s music on a regular basis, consider this your sign to add it into your routine. Jamal’s style on piano is striking, yet brings balance to jazz today. Jamal’s taste for silence and space, textural variety, and gentle clarity of touch is a compass for many musicians. Miles Davis once said, “All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.”&nbsp; Ahmad Jamal lived til 92 years of age, passing away just in April of this year. Jamal started playing piano at age 3 in Pittsburg, where Earl Hines, Erroll Garner and Mary Lou Williams were neighbors. From a young age Jamal listened not just to jazz, which he preferred to call “American classical music,” but also to classical music from Europe.Jamal stated to the New York Times: “We studied Bach and Ellington, Mozart and Art Tatum. When you start at 3, what you hear you play. I heard all these things.” (Grode 2023) Ahmad Jamal is widely-recorded, with more than 60 albums to his name. He was most drawn to ballads, mesmerized with the lyricism, which he took literally. He found his expression in ballads by actually knowing the lyrics, something saxophonist Ben Webster abided by.&nbsp;Jamal’s music is an inspiration all across music, from contemporary groups like The Bad Plus to Hip-Hop artists like De La Soul, Anderson .Paak, Nas, Jay-Z, Common, and many more.&nbsp;&nbsp; Since forming his first jazz group at age 16, Spencer Zweifel has become a regular member of the Colorado music scene. You may have seen him perform with the Domi Edson Trio this past spring for Gift of Jazz’s Ray Brown tribute. An accomplished jazz pianist, Zweifel has performed professionally across Colorado as well as in tours around the US. In 2021, Zweifel was selected as a national finalist for the Jacksonville Jazz Festival jazz piano competition, where he placed third. Spencer graduated in 2019 with a degree in jazz studies from the University of Northern Colorado and won ‘Best pop/rock soloist’ in the 2018 Downbeat Magazine student awards. In 2021, Spencer completed a Master’s in jazz studies at William Paterson University, where he studied with Bill Charlap, Aaron Diehl, and Geoffrey Keezer. In 2020 Zweifel formed the Spencer Zweifel Quintet which has since released 2 records, including 2022's 'Before It's Too Late.'