Abdullah Ibrahim

Next to Hugh Masekela, nobody has done more to spread the sound of South African jazz than pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim, a sound poet who has forged an amalgam of post-bop, gospel, and township jive. Born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town in 1934, the mixed-race musician was considered a person of color according to South Africa’s restrictive apartheid system. He began playing piano at the age of six, steeped in the music his mother performed in church. In 1959 Brand’s hybrid approach blossomed in the Jazz Epistles, a short-lived all-Black group that featured the nation’s best jazz artists, including Masekela. While the group avoided political statements, it nevertheless disbanded in March 1960 as apartheid forces stepped up their repression after the Sharpeville Massacre. In 1962 Brand fled the country, initially settling in Switzerland; while there, he was introduced to Duke Ellington, who produced an influential trio recording by the pianist. Brand moved to New York in 1965, where he studied at Julliard, and in 1968 he returned to Cape Town, converting to Islam and taking the name Abdullah Ibrahim. After the student uprisings of 1976 he settled in New York again, only returning to his homeland at the invitation of Nelson Mandela in 1990. Ibrahim’s music has since toggled between introspective solo recitals and rhythmically churning small-group endeavors; he has also scored various films and television programs.