Freshly Played #26: Abdullah Ibrahim

To kick off the week, something local…

Abdullah Ibrahim is a South African jazz pianist and composer, born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town, he performed under the name Dollar Brand both locally and internationally.

After his conversion to Islam in the 70’s Brand changed his name, and chose to live in self-exile in New York because of the apartheid system in effect in South Africa. He has since returned to South Africa and lives in Cape Town.

Probably the best known “Dollar Brand” recording is Mannenberg which was inspired by the Cape Flats township Manenberg, and later came to be associated with the struggle against apartheid.

This is a shortened version of the much longer track which runs for nearly 14 minutes.

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