Jun 16
Abdullah Ibrahim performing in concert, June 15, 1981.
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Abdullah Ibrahim performing in concert, June 15, 1981.
The accomplished musician, who recorded over 70 albums in his career, died peacefully in Germany after a short illness
Pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim has died, age 91.
Ibrahim, né Adolph Johannes Brand and, reportedly, nicknamed "Dollar" by U.S. GIs stationed at Cape Town from whom he'd buy jazz albums, is considered the greatest jazz musician to have come out of South Africa.
In and out of SA during the apartheid years, he lived in Zurich and London, and at the storied Chelsea Hotel, NYC. On one of his returns to Cape Town, he composed "Mannenberg," a reference to a township where displaced Black South Africans relocated, which became an anthem for the anti-apartheid movement as well as one of the best-known jazz compositions from SA.
He converted to Islam and renamed himself in the 1960s, but, before that, even his name reflected South Africa's fractious, repressive policies, as his grandparent gave him their surname, Brand, so that he might be classified as "colored" rather than "black" by the racist Afrikaner regime.
Ibrahim, in his time in Europe and the U.S., met and/or played with the leading lights of the jazz world, including Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Ornette Coleman.
His piano playing, from his earliest sessions to his last recordings, focused on musicality and spirituality rather than flashy technique, even as his compositions melded South African folk and popular styles with the American jazz forms he encountered and adopted.
aav.
South African pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim (October 9, 1934 – June 15, 2026), previously known as Dollar Brand
He was called Sentso, Adolph, Dollar, then Abdullah. Nelson Mandela called him ‘our Mozart’. Whatever the name, the music behind it never st
Abdullah Ibrahim 9 October 1934 – 15 June 2026
Anthem For The New Nation - Dollar Brand
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