Jamael Dean

Jamael Dean is a jazz pianist/keyboardist and producer from Los Angeles. Somewhat of a musical prodigy, Dean was playing with celebrated artists/bandleaders while still in high school and, like many young musicians, became adept with music production tools at an early age. As a recording artist, with the exception of 2020's solo piano Ished Tree, both of those aspects of his background feature heavily. His lyrical piano/keyboard playing, sometimes accompanied by traditional jazz instrumentation and/or vocals, often trades off or blends in with expansive, mutating soundscapes, which are themselves often produced from samples from within the same song or album. The result has a meditative, spiritual feel that recalls some of Dean's jazz ancestors (in interviews he has cited Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra as influences) but incorporates modern hip-hop musical language, including Dean's occasional rapping. It is a varied and impressive body of work for anyone, much less someone so young.