Earlier this year, Abdullah Ibrahim returned once more to BBC’s flagship television show Later With Jools…, hosted by pianist and iconic presenter Jools Holland. The only entirely music-dedicated show on British terrestrial television, Later with Jools has been running since 1992 and is watched world over...
This record comes quite soon (for AI) after ‘The Balance’ but unlike that one this is a solo outing recorded live at his now hometown in Bavaria. I had the privilege of hearing this live at Cadogan Hall the day before I got the review...
Performing solo, the 84-year-old South African pianist treats melody with reverence – then instinctively, skilfully dismantles it....
Ten pieces, in chronological order, that document the NEA Jazz Master's musical journey....
Ibrahim says on a short note on the back cover of this LP “We push ourselves out of our comfort zones”. Later he says “Technically it’s very, very skilled but there’s a simplicity in the complexity so that people can relate to it. It’s a...
South African composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, formerly known as Dollar Brand, is now in his 84th year. For at least 60 of those years, he has been a jazz musician. With a long and impressive career already behind him, Ibrahim continues to record and...
“The purest thing between heaven and earth is love,” says Abdullah Ibrahim, “and sincerity is the gatekeeper.”...
More than six decades into a trail-blazing career in music, and recently named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, Abdullah Ibrahim shows no signs of slowing down. The legendary jazz pianist, composer and anti-Apartheid activist – Nelson Mandela called him the "Mozart...
On his first album in five years, the pianist finds yet more surprising pleasures in his signature blend of South African music and American jazz....