Jazz musician Ibrahim a study in survival

Jazz musician Ibrahim a study in survival

By Ivy Susanti

JAKARTA (JP): Faith, ancestral heritage and years of creative
cooperation with jazz king Duke Ellington have made Abdullah
Ibrahim the jazz artist he is today.

The hardship and discrimination he experienced during the
apartheid era gave him a sharper perspective in educating the
younger generation in their African musical heritage.

The South African pianist, who will play at an invitation only
concert in Jakarta on Thursday at the Dharmawangsa Hotel in South
Jakarta, was born Adolphes Johannos Brand in 1934 and raised in
Cape Town (he changed his name in adulthood after converting to
Islam).

He was fortunate that his family owned a piano, his mother led
a local choir while his grandmother was the pianist for the local
African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Grandmother's hymns and spirituals made an impression on the
young boy, who began learning to play the piano at age seven. At
some point he was exposed to the jazz of Meade Lux Lewis and Fats
Waller, and in the 1940s he first heard the jumping Jazz of
Erskine Hawkins, Tiny Bradshaw, Louis Jordan and other American
musicians, whose 78rpm discs were available from the sailors and
seamen who put in at Cape Town's great international port.

His musical awareness was enriched by the musical melting pot
of the seaport. In Cape Town, traditional African tribal music,
Cape Malay songs, hymns, carnival and street music, British low-
popular, music of the local communities of Chinese, Indians and
Muslims, "Shabeen" (speak easy), dance music (called marabi and
kwela), American pop, rhythm and blues and Jazz were integral to
the local music culture.

He began his local career as a vocalist with the Streamline
Brothers, then as a pianist first with the Tuxedo Slickers and
Willie Max Big Band.

In 1959, he met alto saxophone player Kippie Moeketsi who
convinced him to devote his life to music. Along with trumpeter
Hugh Masekela, the trio formed the Jazz Epistles, mixing dance
music with Jazz.

At that moment, Ibrahim fell under the defining influence of
the worldly Moeketsi who filled his ears with the sounds of more
Jazz royalty: Parker, Gillespie and Monk.

Meet the king

Life for professional black musicians was difficult during the
apartheid era. Musical performances required the separation of
each race into their respective categories and the mixing of
races in many forums was illegal.

The authorities made it difficult to hold even small-scale
public concerts. The barriers set up by the state to prevent
local black musicians from building an audience were severe and
effective.

Ibrahim's refusal to tour abroad to act in support of the
government's public relations machine shifted his status beyond
being merely one of his country's most popular musicians.

"Cape Town has the Philharmonic Orchestra who were totally
white. They rehearsed on Thursday evening but they only allowed
us to sit back and learn," he told The Jakarta Post during a
media trip to South Africa in March.

In early 1962, Ibrahim and his wife-to-be, vocalist Sathima
Bea Benjamin, left South Africa as the political situation began
to deteriorate.

Over the next three years, Ibrahim and Sathima lived for short
periods in various places in Europe, but initially they settled
down and shared gigs at a coffee house in Zurich.

About a year into their stay in Switzerland, Sathima persuaded
the touring Duke Ellington to come check out her boyfriend's
performance at a local club.

Four days later, the pianist and the Duke were in the Barclay
Studios in Paris where the former recorded a record for Reprise,
Ellington's label of the time. He and his trio appeared at the
Antibes Jazz Festival in 1964.

The same year saw Ibrahim working on compositions for a larger
ensemble and his own music was advancing as well. While in
Copenhagen, he recorded for Alan Bates and Black Lion Records a
series of trio records with fellow South Africans Johnny Gertze
and Makaya Ntshoko.

The Black Lion dates were notable for their lyricism
influenced by Ellington, their alchemy inspired by Thelonious
Monk and intensity stoked by John Coltrane and the saxophonist's
convictions.

His progress during 1965 was also overshadowed by new laws in
South Africa banning all racial mixing. It was now impossible for
Ibrahim to present his music in his homeland performed by a big
band of South African musicians.

In 1965, Ellington urged him to come to the United States,
which he did to play a notable solo concert at Carnegie Hall.
Later that year he received the highest tribute by being invited
to fill the piano chair of the Duke Ellington Orchestra during
its east coast tour.

"I did five dates substituting for him. It was exciting but
very scary, I could hardly play," he was quoted in
www.enjarecords.com as saying.

He converted to Islam in 1968 and received the honored name,
Abdullah Ibrahim.

Ibrahim and Sathima settled in Swaziland in 1971, yet Ibrahim
was often on the road touring and recording. The Ibrahim family
returned to Cape Town in 1973.

Between 1974 and 1976, he made his last recordings with South
African musicians including a stirring vamp "Mannenberg" (which
was reissued in the United States under the title "Capetown
Fringe") that became the anthem of the post-Soweto uprising in
the 1976 era with its uncompromising evocation of the people's
life and hope amongst the death and despair of the government's
brutal repression of the black uprising in Sharpeville.

Artist in exile

Ibrahim made the irrevocable decision in 1976 to exile himself
and his family in protest against the government's violent
repression of racial minorities and the horrible conditions in
his country.

In the United States, he became among the most prominent
artists-in-exile from South Africa, its dictatorship and the
political and social enslavement of apartheid. He refused to
return until South Africa held democratic elections.

Seven years after the 1994 election which saw the first black
president, Ibrahim's main concern has shifted to educating the
youth to preserve the South African musical heritage.

So last April, he initiated the M7 academy. The M7 stands for
music, movement, martial arts, medicine, menu, meditation and the
Masters.

"During the apartheid era, many back people refused to go into
a music school or medical school. That's the whole idea to start.

"Today, some of the township people, even adults, never
attended a music performance and this was the first time they
came here for music," he told the Post.

In his academy, students receive formal training in music
reflecting jazz and African heritage. But M7 has also developed a
holistic curriculum.

Thus training, nurturing and developing musicians in
disciplines as far reaching as dance, nutrition, self-defense,
holistic healing and meditation are critical to any successful
music career, according to the academy's official website
www.m7.co.za.

"M7 is my major concern, that we can leave something for the
younger generation. I've put my own money into this academy," he
said.

He also said that all that was missing was proper musical
instruments.

The academy is located in the City Hall which houses the Cape
Town City Library, including the Central Music Library and a hall
with recording facilities.

For further information on the concert, please contact the
South African Embassy, seventh floor, Wisma GKBI, Jl. Jendral
Sudirman 28, South Jakarta (tel. 5740660).