Jamilla Counts, Granddaughter of Pittsburgh Jazz Legend and Musician Ahmad Jamal, Releases New Book

LITTLE ROCK, AR. (PittsburghNewsWire.com) — “I’m the child of Mumeenah Jamal, child to Ahmad Jamal the Jazz musician. The year my mother was murdered, he released Freeflight (1979, Vinyl).” It took many years for author Jamilla Counts to get to the place where her mother was laid to rest. “As a child,” the author explains, “I never felt I got the proper opportunity to say goodbye.” Traveling to find the place where she lay was life-changing and became the basis for her new book.

 

The author’s goal in writing this book began as a way of paying homage to her mother, but it soon became evident that her story of hope and endurance was one that needed to be told.  Jamila’s childhood consisted of tragedy, confusion, and deprivation. After her mother’s death, the young girl lived with her father and then her grandmother and finally was sent to live with her foster mother. During her teen years, she spent time in a juvenile facility before running away. She found herself back in the city of Chicago, where the memories of her beloved mother haunted her until finally, she decided to research her lineage in search of answers. Who was she? Why did the people in her life grow silent when she asked about her mother’s death?

 

Now available on Amazon, “A Counts Duty: Assembling the Pieces of Me” $19.95 (paperback), is my way of releasing the pain of abuse, abandonment, and denial that bound me for so many years. Many may ask, “Why now?” My response is this, “I didn’t realize there was a statute of limitations on my life’s calling.” 

 

About Jamilla Counts
Jamilla Counts, a single mother of two daughters and one granddaughter, was born in Chicago in 1973 and raised in Memphis, Tennessee.  Despite the challenges of her early years that delayed her education process, Jamilla later received an Associate of Arts degree from Pulaski Technical College due in part to a single-parent scholarship presented by the Major of Saline county. She continued her education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in a social work program. Now a former substitute teacher, Jamilla, has worked in the school district for eight years. Currently, a resident of Arkansas, Jamilla loves to dance, sing in the shower, crack a joke or two, and spend time cultivating the lives of children.

 

Knowing her family history is how author Jamilla Counts spent more than ten years of her life. As the knowledge came, the depression, anxiety, and invisibility were replaced with courage, closure, and acknowledgment. Finally, she felt whole as she assembled the missing pieces of her life.

 

For more information about A Counts Duty, please visit Amazon or to book the author for speaking engagements, contact the author at acountsduty@yahoo.com or follow her on social media at Twitter: @JamillaCounts or Instagram: @counts_obligation.