A skilled jazz musician, he played clarinet, saxophone, flute and vibraphone.
He took up folk guitar, played vibraphone with a jazz group, and participated in madrigal singing.
Reed was an accomplished musician by the age of fourteen, playing the piano, accordion and vibraphone.
Jamal began playing vibraphone during the mid-1960s.
Due to lung injuries during the war he played vibraphone for a time in the 1940s.
He stopped playing vibraphone in the 1970s but continued on clarinet in the 1980s and 1990s.
He also taught himself to play trombone, tuba and vibraphone, and to arrange music.
He is known primarily as an organist and pianist, and also plays vibraphone.
Unlike previous work, all eight songs were originals, except Fly Away whose music was co-written with her husband who played vibraphone on the album.
Wheeled onto the stage, he played vibraphone during "How High the Moon?"