Renowned South African jazz master and pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim, is set to embark on an unprecedented world tour to celebrate his extraordinary career which has spanned more than seven decades, as well as celebrate his 90th birthday which comes up on October 9.
Ibrahim’s management team which announced the planned tour on Wednesday, said the tour will also be marked with Ibrahim’s 90th birthday which will also showcase his dexterity as a jazz musician.
Music writer, Christine Lucia, who has followed Ibrahim’s career for more than 30 years and has studied the iconic star’s work as well as published research articlesabout him, said the planned tour was a way of letting the world have a feel of him in his twilight years.
A profile of the distinguished pianist reveals that he was born on 9 October 1934 in Cape Town.
Ibrahim grew up in Cape Town’s District Six and his compositions are characterized by his upbringing and his experiences with racism and political upheaval.
His music has evolved over seven decades, reflecting social change and personal introspection.
Ibrahim is the finest jazz pianist-composer that South Africa has ever produced and has been described as the country’s equivalent of the US jazz star, Duke Ellington, because his “legacy lies not only in his live performances or multiple recordings but also in his large number of compositions.”
“He was brought up going by the name Dollar Brand and was shaped personally by his mixed-race parentage and by growing up in the mixed-race area of central Cape Town formerly known as District Six,” Lucia wrote about the star.
“He was shaped by the violent political landscape of racism and oppression. As a young man he was also shaped by his conversion to Islam in 1968, which is when he took the name Abdullah Ibrahim, and by his practice of martial arts and Zen, a form of Buddhism.”