Abdullah Ibrahim

Latest Release

Abdullah Ibrahim - Solotude

Abdullah Ibrahim, 3
Out January 26, 2024 via Gearbox Records

High Res Photos

Abdullah Ibrahim - Thumbnail - Photo credit Dr. Marina Umari

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Photo Credit: Dr. Marina Umari

Watch

Abdullah Ibrahim
“Blue Bolero” – Blue Bolero album link

Watch

Abdullah Ibrahim
NPR – Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Press

Press Results  |  See All

Popmatters Best New Jazz: Abdullah Ibrahim

Jazzmatters: Best New Jazz and Creative Music, April 2022"Keenly melodic and typically channeling a form of homegrown simplicity, it still seems of...

NPR: Abdullah Ibrahim’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Abdullah Ibrahim: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert"And for 13 short minutes, I feel seated in Abdullah Ibrahim's home in Chiemgau, Germany, witnessing seven...

Paste New & Notable: Abdullah Ibrahim

Paste highlights Solotude by Abdullah Ibrahim"As heard on this lovely vinyl release, the mood of the space lent notes of wistfulness and fortitude...

Mojo Gives Solotude 4-Stars

Abdullah Ibrahim, Solotude: 4*Read More Below

JazzTimes Review: Abdullah Ibrahim, Solotude

A review of the pianist's solo album that replaced his annual birthday recital in fall of 2020"When it comes to stately beauty, it’s damn near...

The Wire Feature: Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim's dream of a rank outsider at the races teaches the South African pianist to always back himselfRead More Below

WNYC Highlights Abdullah Ibrahim, “District Six”

Weekly Music Roundup: Abdullah Ibrahim"Now, the 87-year old pianist has put out a solo record, called Solotude, an almost meditative recording where...

Jazziz Album Announcement: Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim, Solotude (Gearbox)"The piano legend’s solo performance perfectly lends itself to the venue’s renowned acoustics. Solotude is due...

NPR Best Music of 2019: Abdullah Ibrahim

The 2019 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll: The Fringe Fills the Gap"Sublime...for Ibrahim, rather than cities and natural wonders spotted on world tours,...

NPR Reviews Abdullah Ibrahim’s ‘The Balance’

Ibrahim Is Deeply Rooted Yet Sounds Like No One Else"The latest album from the 84-year-old South African composer and pianist showcases his work as...

NYTimes Feature: Abdullah Ibrahim

A Lifetime of Dreams and Resistance at the Piano"The South African musician formed the Jazz Epistles and got a boost from Duke Ellington. Now 84, he...

Wall Street Journal Review: Abdullah Ibrahim

A Jazz Master Continues to Grow"On his first album in five years, the pianist finds yet more surprising pleasures in his signature blend of South...

Press Releases  |  See All

On Heels of NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, Abdullah Ibrahim Plans Blue Note Concerts Aug. 23-28, Confirms Appearance at Detroit Jazz Festival Sept. 2-3 with His Band Ekaya

New Album Solotude Earning Considerable AcclaimPiano master and NEA Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim will perform concerts August 23-28 at the Blue Note...

NPR Shares Piano Master Abdullah Ibrahim’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

New Album Solotude Earning Considerable AcclaimNPR Music has shared piano master Abdullah Ibrahim’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert. To accompany the...

Gearbox Records Confirms Abdullah Ibrahim Solotude, Out November 26 via Digital & January 14 on Vinyl/CD

NEA Jazz Master & "Master Composer" (NPR Fresh Air) Abdullah Ibrahim Confirms Solo Album “A master of understatement and balance… Levitating.”--New...

About

Bio

Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim is South Africa’s most distinguished pianist and a world-respected master musician. Born in 1934 in Cape Town, Dollar Brand, as he became known, was exposed to a melting pot of cultural influences: African Khoi-san songs, Christian hymns, gospel tunes and spirituals, as well as American jazz, township jive, and classical music. Out of this blend of the secular and religious, and the traditional and the modern, Abdullah Ibrahim’s distinctive sound and musical vocabulary was born.

Abdullah’s reputation first developed in local Cape Town groups such as the Tuxedo Slickers, as well as his own Dollar Brand Trio in 1958. His groundbreaking septet the Jazz Epistles, formed in 1959, and including the likes of trumpeter Hugh Masakela and trombonist Jonas Gwanga, recorded the first jazz album by South African musicians, Jazz Epistle, Verse 1. Due to the increasingly strict apartheid laws and increased government harassment towards musicians, as well as the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, Dollar Brand left the country with his partner Sathima Bea Benjamin and moved to Switzerland. There, he encountered Duke Ellington, which led to the seminal 1964 recording Duke Ellington presents the Dollar Brand Trio.

Abdullah Ibrahim’s later move to New York in 1965 further cemented his career as a leading musician; in those years he interacted with progressive jazz musicians such as Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane, and performed with Elvin Jones and the Ellington Orchestra amongst others. In subsequent years, he would return to Cape Town in search of spiritual harmony, and would record Mannenberg – Is Where It’s Happening, which became an unofficial national anthem for black South Africa. The late-1970s meant a return to the US, which saw Ibrahim involved in a range of artistic projects: Garth Fagan’s ballet Prelude
(first performed 1981), Kalahari Liberation Opera (Vienna, 1982), and the musical Cape Town, South Africa in 1983 with the septet he formed that year, Ekaya.

In 1990 Mandela, freed from prison, invited him to come home to South Africa. The fraught emotions of reacclimatising there are reflected in Mantra Modes (1991), the first recording with South African musicians since 1976, and in Knysna Blue (1993). Ibrahim memorably performed at Mandela’s inauguration in 1994, where Mandela dubbed him “our Mozart.”

Recently, Abdullah was named a Jazz Master as part of the 2019 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), alongside Maria Schneider and Stanley Crouch. Previous recipients of this award include Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Herbie Hancock. In the same year, he also presented a new small-band album, The Balance with Ekaya, which reached #3 in the US Billboard jazz charts, as well as a solo album Dream Time, which was recorded in the historic concert hall of the 500 year- old Hirzinger hotel in Aschau, Germany. An appearance on the BBC’s television show Later… with Jools Holland and a truly memorable performance at the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto in Japan cemented 2019 as a stand-out year for Abdullah.

With the turn of the decade, Abdullah continues to tour the world a solo pianist and with Ekaya, and remains at his zenith as a musician and as a tireless initiator of new projects.

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