Saying so much with so little
Not a single word escaped the lips of Abdullah Ibrahim during his 90-minute performance at Montgomery County Community College on Saturday night. Perhaps that was intended to maintain the spell that the South African pianist/composer cast over the audience, which was mesmerizing; or it could just be his wont, given the fact that his six-piece […]
Abdullah Ibrahim talks jazz: themes, history and spirit
How does one pass down knowledge that resists the deteriorating effects of time? With a soft spoken, low and wisened voice, Abdullah Ibrahim, a South African pianist and composer, responded to creative writing professor Nathaniel Mackey. In the “Talking Music: A Life in Jazz” talk on Oct. 15, Mackey and Ibrahim discussed the sources of […]
‘The Song is My Story’ Review
Celestial Bird Dance, the first song on the album (the intro), is too short for my liking. The beautiful melody composed in 1970 deserves more than just over a minute. It is one of those songs that make you want to listen to it more than once before you allow the rest of the CD […]
Review: “Mukashi” Trio in the NAC Studio
Tuesday night, the South African jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim might have played the fewest notes of any pianist appearing in the TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s NAC Studio series. But make no mistake, the impact of what Ibrahim played was huge. Making every note count, he led his “Mukashi” trio through an entrancing set of rarefied, uncompromising […]
Review: Norwich Theatre Royal performance
Few of us will have ever been disappointed by performances that our Theatre Royal puts on. However, I have rarely been startled, especially by a jazz concert. This is a genre that I think I have loved since I was in my pram, with my older brother trying to lull me to sleep with his […]
Meditation in motion
Abdullah Ibrahim’s fame has never quite matched his achievement. One could easily argue that he is the most talented pianist who has not yet been elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame. He is the most prominent jazz musician ever born in Africa, and by creating a model of how to blend that continent’s traditional […]
Review: Mukashi (Once Upon a Time)
On the eve of his 80th birthday and less than a year after the death of his wife, singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, South African piano great Abdullah Ibrahim has released his starkest, most reflective collection to date. Mukashi is a Japanese word that translates as “Once upon a time,” and the album finds Ibrahim in […]