The main sponsors for the event are the Africana Research Center and the Institute for Arts and Humanities, who are bringing Pittsburgh-native Jamal as part of a multi-year program called "In Pursuit of Social Justice: Recognizing Pennsylvania's Black Artists."
The program began in April 2004 with a show by jazz pianist McCoy Tyner.
Other groups that helped with the concert include the Penn State Jazz Club, the College of Arts and Architecture and the School of Music.
Byrne said that, though Jamal continued to create music after the '50s and has been a big influence on legends like Miles Davis, he remains under-appreciated.
"Pretty much everyone in the world knows about Davis, but relatively few people know about Jamal," Byrne said.
After the two played together, Davis gave Jamal's talents a lot of praise.
"Miles Davis usually doesn't give that much credit to anybody," PSU Jazz Club President Corey Wallace said.
When funk rhythms began replacing swing rhythms in jazz music, many artists would use electric piano and bass, but not change the music, Byrne said.
"They were basically still playing jazz on electric instruments," Byrne said, noting that Ahmad instead incorporated funk rhythms with acoustic jazz. "Ahmad incorporated funk bass and African percussion, but continued to play acoustic piano. It's not like he just played music for the '50s all his life. Throughout his career he's been an innovator," he said.
Byrne noted that though Jamal may not have had the commercial attention of an artist like Davis, Jamal didn't pursue fame in the way he pursued innovation.
"Maybe one of the reasons that he's not been copied so much is because not anybody can do it," Byrne said. People interested in jazz can use this concert as an opportunity to really experience the music, he said.
"The best way to learn about [jazz] or enjoy it is to go see a performance and immerse yourself in it," he said.
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