From apartheid to beauty: 10 essential recordings by Abdullah Ibrahim

Born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town in 1934, Abdullah Ibrahim began his professional life as a pianist at 15 under the name Dollar Brand. Co‑founding the Jazz Epistles in 1959 with Hugh Masekela helped define a South African take on bebop; on Jazz Epistle Verse 1 the closing number Scullery Department already shows Ibrahim’s emerging voice, turning Monk‑like motifs into an earthy, swinging groove.

The 1960s brought harsh repression, including the Sharpeville massacre, and Ibrahim left South Africa for Europe. In Zurich his trio caught the attention of Duke Ellington, leading to a session that produced pieces such as the virtuosic Jumping Rope. Back visits to Cape Town yielded Mannenberg, a single‑take tune named for a township whose ebullient melody and Basil Coetzee’s roaring sax solo made it an unofficial civil rights anthem and a favourite of Nelson Mandela’s, who reportedly listened to a smuggled version on Robben Island.

South Africa, Cape Town

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