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Jazz Articles about Abdullah Ibrahim
South Africa at the South Bank
by Duncan Heining
The Dedication Orchestra and Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya The South Bank Centre London Jazz Festival November 15, 2014 The London Jazz Festival is now in its twenty-second year. It's a vast, sprawling event and its venues criss-cross a city that never quite seems to end, whilst its musical styles span the globe from the USA to Australia and from South Africa to Norway. Saturday 15th November saw South Africa in two distinctly different guises ...
Continue ReadingAbdullah Ibrahim at Zankel Hall
by Dan Bilawsky
Abdullah Ibrahim Zankel Hall Ubuntu: Music And Arts Of South Africa New York, NY October 17, 2014 Ubuntu. It's one little six-letter word that carries a world of meaning within its frame. The term itself, roughly translated to mean “I am because you are," took root as a philosophy for black youth liberation in the '40s and '50s, but over time, ubuntu has taken on a life beyond a specific movement. It's a ...
Continue ReadingAbdullah Ibrahim: Mukashi (Once upon a time)
by Gabriel Medina Arenas
Japan and South Africa were never so close. The acclaimed pianist and flautist Abdullah Ibrahim fused the Asian zen calmness with stories and inspiration from his native homeland in his latest album Mukashi. Mukashi translates in Japanese as “Once upon a time" is a very appropriate title considering Ibrahim's impressive storytelling skills, as well as the visual evocations of the record. “Krotoa" is one of the most interesting tracks of the album and it is split ...
Continue ReadingAbdullah Ibrahim: Mukashi Once Upon a Time
by Maurizio Zerbo
Abdullah Ibrahim apre la sua musica verso gli orizzonti dell'Oriente, proiettandola in qualche traccia verso i suoni tradizionali del Giappone. Non è una scelta estetizzante, ma ben rispondente alla curiosità di un uomo che da 50 anni pratica le arti marziali e le filosofie orientali. Come ben dimostra la magnifica traccia finale del CD, i colori poliritmici della sua tradizione vengono messi da parte in favore di un jazz da camera raffinato ed introspettivo. Il pianoforte resta il punto focale ...
Continue ReadingAbdullah Ibrahim: African Piano
by John Kelman
Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett are widely thought to have represented ECM Records' initial solo piano forays with Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1 & 2 (1971/1972) and Facing You (1972), respectively, but a lesser-known recording from 1969, unreleased until 1973 on ECM's sister label, JAPO, could be considered its true first. Originally released under Dollar Brand's birth surname as the South African pianist had yet to convert to Islam and become Abdullah Ibrahim, African Piano's reissue as part of ECM's Re:solutions ...
Continue ReadingAbdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya: Sotho Blue
by Raul d'Gama Rose
The music of pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has lit up the world, shining brightly in the darkest recesses of the mind for decades. It has sung proud through the apartheid era, helping to clench the fist of protest tighter and the voice of human freedom sing louder. Now that the walls of segregation (at least in South Africa) have come tumbling down, Ibrahim's elementally beautiful melodies have begun to sound more tempered, his husky harmonies more bronzed, glowing with burnished colors. ...
Continue ReadingAbdullah Ibrahim: Perpetual Change
by Ian Patterson
For legendary pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim, music is always in a state of evolution. This philosophy is common to nearly all great composers, from [pianist] Duke Ellington to [trumpeter] Miles Davis and from [saxophonist] John Coltrane and [pianist] Ahmad Jamal to [guitarist] Bill Frisell. A piece of music is born, it grows and gradually matures but it never withers. And, like the Lesotho mountains, which, in part, inspired Ibrahim to revisit compositions--some of which he penned a quarter ...
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