Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) – The Pilgrim (1986)

There is a quality to pianist Abdullah Ibrahim’s music that makes it sound like a slow, sad goodbye. That may be because he spent the majority of the 1960s to the 1990s in self-imposed exile from his home country of South Africa – a protest against the racial segregation of apartheid – or it may be to do with the soft, downtempo way he picks out each note hunched behind his grand piano, improvising as if he is forever playing towards the end of a phrase.

Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934 and formerly known as Dollar Brand) is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME Church and Ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the subgenre of Cape jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. He is known especially for "Mannenberg", a jazz piece that became a notable anti-apartheid anthem.

During the apartheid era in the 1960s Ibrahim moved to New York City and, apart from a brief return to South Africa in the 1970s, remained in exile until the early '90s. Over the decades he has toured the world extensively, appearing at major venues either as a solo artist or playing with other renowned musicians, including Max Roach, Carlos Ward and Randy Weston, as well as collaborating with classical orchestras in Europe. With his wife, the jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, he is father to the New York underground rapper Jean Grae, as well as to a son, Tsakwe.

"The Pilgrim" is a compilation, released in 1986, using tracks from the albums 'Good News from Africa (ENJA 2048) and 'Echoes from Africa (ENJA 3047)


Tracklist:

1 The Pilgrim 9:50
2 Ntsikana's Bell 6:15
3 Msunduza 4:37
4 Namhanje 16:54
5 Saud 5:54
6 Moniebah / The Pilgrim 12:00

Tracks 1 to 3 & 6 recorded on 10.12.1973
Tracks 4 & 5 recorded on 7.9.1979

Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) – The Pilgrim(1986)

(320 kbps, cover art included)