SA mourns world-renowned jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim

Pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim, who died on Monday aged 91, escaped apartheid-era South Africa to be discovered by jazz great Duke Ellington, becoming highly influential with a distinct musical style and touring the world into his nineties. Ibrahim spent many years away from South Africa — first fleeing in 1962, the year anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was jailed — but always maintained a strong connection with his homeland, especially through his music. “Ibrahim passed away peacefully surrounded by family in Germany following a short illness,” his family said in a statement.

His final public performance in South Africa was at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in March. “Abdullah passed away peacefully with South Africa and its people in his heart. His love for his country never wavered, no matter where in the world he found himself,” his partner Dr Marina Umari said.

Named Adolph Johannes Brand when he was born in 1934 into Cape Town’s cultural melting pot, he began piano lessons at the age of seven, influenced by his mother and grandmother. “His early musical memories were of traditional African Khoi-san songs and the Christian hymns, gospel tunes and spirituals that he heard from his grandmother, who was pianist for the local African Methodist Episcopalian church, and his mother, who led the choir,” the biography on his website said. He made his professional debut aged 15, playing with big swing groups and forming his first band, the Dollar Brand Trio, in 1958 when he was 24 years old. The following year, he joined The Jazz Epistles septet that included another music legend, the late trumpeter Hugh Masekela, and recorded the first album by a black South African band.