Abdullah Ibrahim to present two solo concerts in Cape Town in October
South Africa’s most distinguished pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim, will present two solo piano concerts at the Artscape Theatre on 13 and 14 October 2017. The highly anticipated programme showcases Mr. Ibrahim’s compositions spanning the past seventy years, influenced by people, places and events that have impacted his life and career. Abdullah Ibrahim is a world-respected master musician, […]
German Jazz Trophy: Abdullah Ibrahim
The German Jazz Trophy will be given to the South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim at the event center SpardaWelt on July 7th. Ibrahim is considered a defining influence on modern creative jazz and has been a musical leader in the struggle against South African apartheid throughout his career. With the prize, he is honored for […]
Jazz Fest – Recap of Week One
It’s not surprising yet it remains illuminating that New Orleans artists’ sets stand tall next to the superstars who perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Many of them provided some of the highlights of the festival’s first weekend and were given credos by the national press. In his review of the event, […]
Review: Abdullah Ibrahim Revisits the Past at Town Hall
Since leaving South Africa in the early 1960s to escape apartheid and pursue an international career, the jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has made music with a sense of tenuous suspension. You could say his is a gospel of near-deliverance.
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Jazz Epistles
The session is only dimly remembered now. It took place in January 1960, in the midst of the South African summer, at the Gallo recording studio in Johannesburg. The album that emerged, Jazz Epistle, Verse 1, was the first full-length by a Black South African jazz ensemble. With a print run of just five hundred […]
German Jazz Trophy
Die German Jazz Trophy erhält in diesem Jahr der Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, der 1934 in Kapstadt auf die Welt kam. Der mit 15.000 Euro dotierte Preis, samt einer von Otto Herbert Hayek geschaffenen Skulptur, wird am 7. Juli 2017 zum Auftakt der Jazz-Open Stuttgart überreicht. Bei dieser Gelegenheit wird der Südafrikaner mit dem ursprünglichen Namen […]
The Academy South Africa USA Japan Launch 2016
magnificent mountains around this town but very few people who dream and drown the academy ancient tradition – new relevance sound breath movement stay tuned to this wave signal ai
131 Prince Street
When I visited Ornette Coleman’s SoHo loft in early 1973, the threat of eviction was already hanging over him. The great saxophonist and composer had lived at 131 Prince Street since the late ’60s, when the district’s historic buildings had been under threat of demolition to make way for the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Now […]
Abdullah Ibrahim At SFJAZZ
At 81, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, is still going strong, something he proved during a remarkable tour-de-force performance which spanned four nights at SFJAZZ in San Francisco. For the first two evenings (Thursday and Friday), Ibrahim appeared in the company of his Mukashi Trio. For these nights, Ibrahim brought together bassist, cellist, and composer Noah Jackson, […]
Lance Bryant on the Jazz Epistles
The 1960’s was the decade where jazz musicians began to assert a stronger African heritage and even non-conformist approaches to their music. Although this had only begun to fully blossom in 1960, the Jazz Epistles in South Africa were already on this path in 1959 and ’60, creating progressive music reminiscent of Cecil Taylor, Andrew […]