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).