Abdullah Ibrhin

Sometimes a musical message is so urgent that questions of recording quality are almost beside the point. Informally recorded in 1969 in a noisy club – Copenhagen’s famous Jazzhus Montmartre – the flavour of this album is ‘documentary’ rather than luxuriantly hi-fidelity, yet the essence of Abdullah Ibrahim’s communication comes through loud and clear. The listener is drawn into the robust rhythms of his solo piano style, as he re-examines the history of jazz from a South African perspective, with echoes of songs of the townships, and vamps that hint of Monk and Duke and much more. African Piano was a highly influential album, and it has lost none of its power.As part of the Re:solutions series this historical title has been mastered from original analog sources and reissued in January 2014.

This was a very special recording for pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim because, after nearly 30 years of exile, he was back in Cape Town, South Africa performing with local musicians. The musicianship is surprisingly high and the African septet does a fine job of interpreting eight of Ibrahim's newer folk melodies.

Recorded at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg, on 10.12.1973, except (4), (5) which were recorded on 7.9.1979.
South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim's effervescent sound is immediately recognizable. It is steeped in the folk traditions of his homeland - from township folk and A.M.E. gospel to Indian raga - and is wed to the elegant compositional flair of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk's canny notions of harmony and rhythm, improvisation, and classical technical proficiency. He is the most distinguished - and prolific - jazzman in South Africa's history.

African Magic is a sweeping 24-part suite recorded live at the 11th and final Jazz Across the Border Festival in Germany in 2001 by the Abdullah Ibrahim Trio. Ibrahim's trio features acoustic bassist Belden Bullock and drummer Sipho Kunene distilling the melodic sounds of South Africa into a personal improvisation of jazz, religious, and traditional world music coupled with European classical and chamber music influences. Recurring cubistic style fragments of Ibrahim's multi-themed tone poem "Blue Bolero" are sequenced throughout this enchanting program and encourage listeners to participate in the invigorating rhythms that are abstract yet romantic…

Cape Town Flowers is an enchanting effort from Abdullah Ibrahim, finding the pianist in a trio setting performing 11 original compositions. With the exception of the nine-minute title track and "Monk In Harlem," most of the album's songs clock in at under five minutes, many under four. Each of the pieces is understated, lovely, and nearly dreamlike. The length of the tracks may make Cape Town Flowers seem like a slight record, but the truth is, that very brevity and the way the songs form a sonic tapestry is exactly what makes the record a modest gem.

Adolph Johannes Brand was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1934. He adopted the stage name Dollar Brand for his first few recordings, before changing his name to Abdullah Ibrahim on his conversion to Islam in 1968. The recording dates of both these sets are from that brief period between the burst of South African jazz and when Ibrahim and fellow musicians fled apartheid in 1962.