Taking Off: Jahari Stampley

Jahari Stampley’s career is the stuff of jazz dreams, and he’s only edging into his mid-twenties. Last year the Chicago-based pianist, composer and producer independently released a debut album, Still Listening, a project whose wildly original mix of electronica, church music and avant-garde stylings had the likes of Robert Glasper, Derrick Hodge and Jill Scott double taking.

Critics have waxed ecstatic over an original sound marked by vibrant chords, clever motifs and cascading lyricism, by compositional smarts and polyrhythmic flair. They’ve called him a virtuoso, a wunderkind. When Stampley won the prestigious Herbie Hancock International Jazz Institute Competition in October, 2023, his reputation was sealed. Hancock, a former child prodigy himself, watched, amazed, as Stampley began his set with a medley of free improvisation that moved into an original, ‘Prelude Entrance’, then to a cover of ‘In the Morning’ by John Hicks.

“I haven’t seen anybody with technique like that, ever,” Hancock told me in September. “I thought I was looking at Art Tatum’s second coming, in a more modern form. He is just an amazing talent.”

Stampley was later announced Chicagoan of the Year for Jazz 2023, an honour awarded to drummer and beat scientist Makaya McCraven in 2022 and vocalist/multi-hyphenate Angel Bat Dawid in 2021.

“Chicago has always been a musical mecca, with people like Donnie Hathaway, Ramsay Lewis and of course, Herbie, who I’ve read about and listened to my entire life, to the point where he seemed like a mythical being,” says Stampley. “Meeting him was like meeting Santa Claus. Winning the competition gave me the opportunity to share my music with a global audience, and I am eternally grateful.”

He performs both as a solo artist and with his trio - which includes rotating drummers Jungkuk Kim and Miguel Russell and rather remarkably, his mother D-Erania Stampley, a seven-times Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist, on bass, sax and bass synthesizer.

“The trio format allows more space for exploration. My mother is a uniquely gifted multi-instrumentalist and brings in so many textures and possibilities musically. Having my organ pedals under the piano allows me to take over the bass lines for her as she switches to saxophone or synth.

“I’m always surprised at how quickly she learns new instruments,” he adds of D-Erania, who also holds a pilot’s licence. “She only started playing bass a year ago and she’s already playing songs in 13/8 time signatures. There is truly no one else I can imagine doing what she does in this trio.”

Growing up in a house with an extensive vinyl collection (his father, a music buff, played bass on the side too) and a recording studio frequented by the likes of longtime family friend and Miles Davis sideman, the composer and keys player Robert Irving; and Isaiah Sharkey, a leading guitarist of his generation, a career in music was probably inevitable. Stampley – who also designs smartphone apps, including a current major piano course that will outline his methods and approach – disagrees.

“My parents never forced me into music. I chose it. And I’ve pursued it with a deep love and passion. Being from the Internet era oftentimes I’d hear a variety of random clips and music and I developed a habit of not ignoring anything; I’d purposefully try to comprehend every bit of sound or progression to develop a quickness in my ears. This helped me translate what I hear to my instrument.”

He tried drums, saxophone and beatboxing, and aged 14 turned to piano, which resonated immediately. He played hymns in the black church, and gospel on a Hammond B3 organ. Then he set about integrating organ and piano, using the former’s midi-pedals with the latter, and merging this sound with synthesisers and electronics, which gave him the blueprint for his live performance. He won high school competitions and is the only non-classical musician to win the Chicago Youth Symphony Award.

On graduating from the Manhattan School of Music in 2021 he took off on tour with legendary Return To Forever bassist Stanley Clarke, an experience he describes as profound.

“Working with Stanley helped me expand in ways I couldn’t imagine,” says Stampley, whose various guest features include a turn on Derrick Hodge’s Colour of Noise album and, after arranging Robert Glasper’s ‘Gonna Be Alright’ as an undergraduate, several YouTube collaborations with Robert Glasper: “I was already a huge fan of Chick Corea, and we were playing the music of Return To Forever! Stanley is continuing the legacy of jazz by passing the baton to the next generation.”

With its four solo and five ensemble tracks, all originals, and collaborators including Derrick Hodge, vocalist Alysha Monique and young tenor player Emilio Modeste (also lead saxophonist with Stanley Clarke), Still Listening comprises moments from different moods and eras; ‘Unlimited’ featuring drummer Dwayne Deo Bradford II and bassist Runere Brooks, was written when Stampley was 16.

A goal, he says, is to rejuvenate live audiences, reintroduce them to genres endangered by short attention spans, harness the multifaceted nature of music so that listeners can draw their subjective meanings: “We are putting emotion into everything we do, and it will mean something different to different people. That’s part of the magic of music.”