3

Description

Legendary composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim announces the release of his new album “3” via Gearbox Records. Taken from his sold-out summer 2023 concert at London’s Barbican Centre, the new album “3” continues and expands on two performances – the first is recorded without an audience ahead of the concert, direct to analogue on a Scully 1” tape machine, which was famously used by Elvis in Memphis’s iconic Sun Studios. The second recording is taken from the evening itself, Ibrahim performing with a unique trio comprising Cleave Guyton (flute, piccolo, saxophone) who has performed alongside the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie and Joe Henderson, and bassist and cellist Noah Jackson, both members of Ekaya and featured on Ibrahim’s Billboard Top 3 charting jazz album “The Balance”. The recording features a number of special new pieces and emotive arrangements influenced by the music of Ibrahim’s upbringing (gospel and jive, American jazz and classical music, sacred and secular) alongside arrangements of pieces by his friends and heroes such as Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, all interwoven by his flowing, exuberant playing style. The recording also features haunting vocal performances from Ibrahim, creating a powerful and poignant moment with heart-wrenching songs of the pain of enslavement, sung in both an indigenous language and English. The whole is accentuated by the absence of percussion, highlighting both the more poignant and energetic moments. Abdullah Ibrahim (who also recorded as Dollar Brand) is one of South Africa’s most celebrated musicians. Born under apartheid, where jazz music was seen as an act of resistance, his music is often seen to represent freedom. His great anti-apartheid anthem “Mannenberg” (released as “Capetown Fringe” in the US) is regarded as an unofficial national anthem in South Africa, and he even performed at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, who called him “our Mozart”. He has played with everyone from Duke Ellington to Max Roach, John Coltrane to Ornette Coleman, and is the father of underground rapper Jean Grae. Abdullah Ibrahim was also recently honoured by the Japanese Government with The Order of the Rising Sun, one of the country’s highest honours. Abdullah is one of many foreign recipients of the Spring 2020 Imperial decorations by His Majesty, The Emperor of Japan. The award was given to Abdullah in recognition of his contribution to the emancipation of the South African and global people through his music, as well as his contribution to the friendship between Japan and South Africa through his works, performances and deep understanding of Japanese culture and spirituality. Ibrahim’s ongoing project on his 800-hectare farm in the green Kalahari is a perfect example. The project involves the local community and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, and focusses on music, movement, medicine, meditation, and Satoyama Biodiversity – the Japanese cosmology of conservation and creating a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Recently, Ibrahim told Arts24: “The idea is to integrate all of this. I call it Satoyama Africa, meaning biodiversity with music, astrophysics and farm produce. For the youth, the idea is to come here and engage in this. For young musicians, for example, it’s about composing in this dynamic. We have the ancient land, and we have views beyond the Milky Way.”