Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim – born Adolphus Johannes Brand in Cape Town, South Africa on October 9, 1934 – is a jazz keyboardist formerly known as Dollar Brand prior to his conversion to Islam in 1968. He is one of the most influential musicians to emerge from South Africa and one of the founding fathers of the so-called Cape jazz movement. He is best known for his composition “Mannenberg,” a song which he wrote after being driven into exile in the 1970s by the increasingly oppressive South African government. The song was produced by record shop owner Rashid Valley and recorded during one of Abdullah Ibrahim's fleeting visits to South Africa. It features a melodic, Ramsey Lewis-style piano riff supported by the raunchy tenor saxophone playing of Basil Coetzee and went on to become one of the unofficial anthems of the anti-apartheid movement, selling tens of thousands of copies among the townships. The song eventually became an internationally recognized jazz classic. Abdullah Ibraham’s – and Dollar Brand’s - deep catalog of releases includes the albums Jazz Epistle Verse 1 with the Jazz Epistles (1960), Anatomy of a South African Village (1965), African Piano (1970), Ancient Africa (1972), African Sketchbook (1973), The Journey (1977), Duet with Archie Shepp (1978), African Dawn (1982), Senzo (2008), and Dream Time (2019). After the ending of apartheid in 1994, Abdullah Ibrahim returned to live in his native South Africa and divided his time between Cape Town and New York. As well as his highly acclaimed jazz work, he has written soundtracks for a number of films including Chocolat (1988) and No Fear, No Die (1990). In his later career, he continues to perform internationally, mainly in Europe but with occasional shows in North America. Still dedicated to recording new albums, he released the solo piano album Solotude in 2020, which was followed by the 2023 album 3.

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