Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah [Brand, Dollar; Brand, Adolph Johannes] Ibrahim
(b Cape Town, 9 Oct 1934). South African jazz pianist, flautist and composer.

The development of his style was influenced by the work of Duke Ellington and Thelonius Monk and by South African marabi; he is known for his ballads and his skill in extended melodic invention and has released 63 recordings.

After making his name locally he moved to Zürich in 1962, attracted by its sociopolitical climate and the possibility of opportunities for performance. In Zürich Duke Ellington heard him perform; he arranged for Brand to make a recording in 1963 and to appear in the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. Brand moved to New York, where he met Thelonius Monk; he subsequently toured Europe, performing as a soloist and with other musicians including Gato Barbieri, Don Cherry and Makaya Ntshoko.

From 1971 to 1976 he lived in South Africa, but he returned to exile in New York after defiantly organizing a jazz festival in his homeland. In the 1970s and 1980s the themes of his music and its reaffirmation of marabi showed the influence of his conversion to Islam and an intensification of his opposition to apartheid. During this period he recorded alone, in duos with Archie Schepp, Max Roach, Johnny Dyani and Carlos Ward, and as a member of small ensembles. With the Cape alto saxophonist Basil Coetzee he recorded Mannenburg, a slow version of an old Zacks Nkosi melody called Jackpot, which became an anthem of the struggle against apartheid and a classic of the Cape jazz repertory. His septet Ekhaya may be heard in most of his later recordings. He returned to South Africa in 1992.