Clark Atlanta University’s Jazz 91.9 WCLK on-air personality Jamal Ahmad is spearheading a local movement of sorts. His nationally syndicated radio show, The S.O.U.L. of Jazz underscores the importance of the genre and introduces new generations to the rhythmic stirrings and improvisational qualities of the music. In that vein, the widely recognized music aficionado seizes the opportunity to share his appreciation for jazz and is eagerly looking forward to sharing his enthusiasm for the music and the WCLK platform at the station’s 50th anniversary celebration at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall on May 24.
This year The Atlanta Jazz Festival will honor the station and Atlanta’s diverse community of jazz artists by presenting the concert event WCLK AT 50. The station’s world-class broadcast platform is widely known for its dedication to increasing the awareness of the significance of jazz music as an American art form, and guiding and training students in all aspects of broadcast and public media services.
Ahmad spoke with the Atlanta Daily World regarding the music, the show and WCLK at 50.
His platform …
“The soul in The S.O.U.L. of Jazz is also an acronym for ‘sounds of universal love.’ My show has a kind of syndicated counterpart that airs across the country that is this very kind of urban alternative future with classic energy jazz show. I’m mixing jazz and soul music from all over the world. And I’ve been doing it since the ’90s. This is my 30th year doing it.
His professional purpose …
“When I look at what I do on the radio, especially being an African American who came up in the hip-hop community, and the decision that I made in the midst of the Tupac Biggie era to say, ‘You know what, I’m going to work at a jazz radio station,’ as opposed to what my peers wanted to do which was R&b and hip-hop which I love and that’s still my vibe … but I was wanting to do something different. And I’m so glad because not only was it kind of school for me, working at WCLK, was almost like coming to school. Getting on the microphone, it was almost like I was teaching because I was learning all this information about jazz music and soul music and just our culture, as a people, broadcasting it back out to the people.
On the intersection of jazz and hip-hop …
“You know what is so interesting is that I was being educated, even though I didn’t know it at the time when I was listening hip-hop back in the day and groups like A Tribe Called Quest, De la Sol a lot of groups, and even people like Tupac, is we were hearing these poems and those were samples from jazz musicians. You go back to Tupac’s ‘How Do You Want It, which is a very popular hip-hop song, but that’s … Quincy Jones’ ‘Body Heat,’
So you start learning from hip-hop about jazz and then in turn, you start teaching your generation that our music is taken from a whole other generation and we have to acknowledge them because if it were not for them, we wouldn’t be able to make this great music and have music to sample.”
Ahmad, who is an award-winning radio show host well-versed in the storied relationship between jazz and hip-hop encourages music lovers to explore their inner-jazz and support WCLK as it celebrates 50 years of phenomenal music.
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