From the pain of racism to the beauty of beauty: 10 of the best paintings of jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim | Jazz

Department of Scullery (from Jazz Epistle verse 1, 1960)

Born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town in 1934, Abdullah Ibrahim spent 60 years defining South African jazz. Making his professional debut as a pianist at the age of 15 under the name Dollar Brand, it was his formation with the Jazz Epistles group in 1959 that laid the foundation for his touring career. South Africa’s first Black Jazz group, featuring trumpeter Hugh Masekela who would become a stellar bandleader in his own right, Jazz Epistles’ first and only album Epistle Verse 1 is a brilliant document of the South African take on bebop. Although the opener Dollar’s Mood was named after Ibrahim, it is the closing number Scullery Department that shows his innate talent. Deeply sung, Ibrahim’s playing masterfully leaps forward before taking on a solo that transforms Thelonious Monk’s music into a sound that would be featured in hundreds of his films to come.

Jumping Rope (from Duke Ellington Presents the Dollar Brand Trio, 1964)

Although a Jazz Letters were not written for political music, the arrival of the 1960s brought brutal repression (including the Sharpeville massacre), and the apartheid regime put black artists under intense scrutiny, which led Ibrahim to flee to Europe. In Zurich, Ibrahim’s future wife, Sathima Bea Benjamin, encouraged the big band luminary Duke Ellington to watch Ibrahim play with his trio. Indeed, Ellington set up a recording session. The resulting album is a gem, showcasing Ibrahim’s rapidly growing chops. Tracks like Dollar’s Dance show his gospel influence in his soulful lyrics but it’s Jumping Rope that focuses on his virtuosity, accelerating Monkisms’ music into a modern firebrand. Little enthusiasm for the album benefited from a major release in the 1990s.

Mannenberg (Mannenberg – That’s Where It Happens, 1974)

From the end of the 1960s, Ibrahim began to visit regularly in Cape Town, converted to Islam and changed his name in 1968, before embarking on a pilgrimage to Hajj in 1970. It was on the way to Cape Town that it was difficult for Ibrahim to write what has become the most famous, Mannenberg. Named after the town of Cape Town where low-income black families were forcibly relocated, the song finds its resistance in the constant joy, with Ibrahim’s earworms, the high-quality melody and the singing voice of tenor Basil Coetzee. The song was written at the same time but soon became a civil rights anthem, often played at rallies and became a favorite of Nelson Mandela, who is said to have listened to bootleg music while imprisoned on Robben Island.

Draw (Joy) (Journey, 1977)

Ibrahim’s friendship with jazz fusion trumpeter Don Cherry in the 1970s inspired the pianist to turn to the avant garde. For 1977’s album, The Journey, Ibrahim enlisted his largest band to date – a nine-piece – to create a three-song album based on hard and free percussion. Seventeen minutes of Jabulani (Happiness) is a beautiful sight, opening with Ibrahim’s lively lead line before moving freely. Cherry and alto saxophonist Carlos Ward soar but Ibrahim’s soulful voice keeps us grounded.

You, just me (African Dawn, 1982)

From the classics of The Journey and Ibrahim’s last 1970s effort comes 1982’s thrilling solo adventure African Dawn. Paying homage to jazz forefathers such as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington collaborator Billy Strayhorn, Ibrahim’s interpretation of the 1929 song Just You, Just Me is well-known. Using a heavy left-hand instrument to increase the volume of the floating melody, Ibrahim skillfully uses everything from slow melodies to gospel accents and bluesy transitions, turning his 88 keys into a symphony of sounds.

Mandela (Water from the Old Well, 1985)

Ibrahim’s septet Ekaya will be one of the most enduring of his groups after its formation in 1983. It created an unusual type of three saxophones, trombone, bass and drums, the horn section allowed Ibrahim to write songs with a big-group feeling and a small car type of rhythm section. This combination is most prominent on Mandela’s opening track from Ekaya’s 1985 album Water from An Ancient Well. With a very deep swing in modern jazz, the song features enthusiastic singing from each member of the trumpet section while Ibrahim himself takes a back seat, pushing the song gently with his well-placed right-hand vocals.

Marriage (African Suite, 1998)

For 1998’s African Suite, Ibrahim combined three of his compositions for piano and 17 strings, showing the depth of many of his long-running compositions. One of his standards to be given orchestral support is the passionate love song Ukwati, first recorded in 1980’s African Marketplace. Vivid strings sweep through the opening before Ibrahim’s pianos begin to sing with their steady swing, which carries as much emotion as the lead vocal line. Ibrahim also used orchestral music in his professional film scoring work, which included Claire Denis features Chocolat and No Fear, No Die.

Joan Capetown Flower (Emerald Bay) (Sotho Blue, 2010)

Sotho Blue is a welcome return to the genre of Ekaya and modified versions of Ibrahim’s standards such as The Wedding and Nisa of 1978. The group takes its 1997 Joan Capetown Flower (Emerald Bay), a song, a song that sets the interweaving music between Keith Loftis and Ibrahim, selling well-woven lines that go beyond the genre of questions and answers into a difficult conversation itself.

Dream time (The Balance, 2019)

In 2019, at the age of 85, Ibrahim sang new songs for Ekaya The Balance, as well as solo piano songs Dream Time and Solotude, as well as three live songs. Focusing on the perfect rhythm, the song moves in a breathy, surprisingly melodious way as Ibrahim delivers short, finely crafted lines to match Guyton’s swing. An unexpected foray into a new territory.

Nisa (Individual, 2020)

For one of Ibrahim’s last piano songs, Solotude of 2020, the octogenarian accepted the limits of his body to create 20 songs that replace the strong work of the original with the likes of the Jazz Epistles and Don Cherry for something bright and fun. His version of Nisa, which has appeared in the lyrics since the 1970s, is very moving, taking enough time to move from word to word as if Ibrahim is recounting the events of his life as they occur to him at the time. However, the strumming, bluesy vocals and haunting melodies are all his own – a pianist’s touch that will never be completely imitated.