CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Abdullah Ibrahim
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City/Place:
Chiemgau
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Country:
Germany
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Hometown:
Cape Town, South Africa
Life & Work
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Bio:
Abdullah Ibrahim, the eminent pianist from South Africa and a globally respected master musician, was born in 1934 in Cape Town under the name Adolph Johannes Brand. His early musical influences were shaped by traditional African Khoi-san songs and the Christian hymns, gospel tunes, and spirituals that resonated through his grandmother's piano at the local African Methodist Episcopalian church. Growing up in the culturally diverse Cape Town of his childhood, he was immersed in a rich blend of American jazz, township jive, Cape Malay music, and classical melodies, all of which contributed to the unique style, harmonies, and musical language that would become distinctly his own.
Starting piano lessons at the age of seven, he made his professional debut at fifteen, playing and recording with local groups like the Tuxedo Slickers. A pioneer in Cape Town's bebop scene, he formed the Dollar Brand Trio in 1958. The Jazz Epistles, a groundbreaking septet he formed in 1959, recorded South Africa's first jazz album. In 1960, following the Sharpeville massacre, political tensions led to the closure of clubs, and many musicians faced harassment. Seeking refuge abroad, Abdullah Ibrahim and his wife, vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin, left South Africa in 1962 for a musical journey in Europe.
The pivotal year 1968 marked a turning point in his life. Returning to Cape Town, he converted to Islam, adopting the name Abdullah Ibrahim, and embarked on a spiritual journey. After establishing a music school in Swaziland, he returned to Cape Town in 1973. The iconic "Mannenberg – ‘Is where it’s happening’" was recorded in 1974, becoming an unofficial anthem for black South Africans. Following the Soweto student uprising in 1976, he organized an illegal ANC benefit concert, prompting his relocation to the United States.
In 1981, Abdullah Ibrahim and Sathima founded the record company Ekapa, signaling a determination to manage their own affairs in America. Throughout the 1980s, he engaged in various artistic projects, collaborating with renowned artists and contributing to ballets and operas. In 1990, Mandela's invitation prompted his return to South Africa, and he performed at Mandela's inauguration in 1994.
Beyond his extensive touring and collaborations, Abdullah Ibrahim's impact extends to film scores, documentaries, and his involvement in the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra in 2006. Celebrating his seventieth birthday in 2004, he released two CDs and continued his commitment to education through the establishment of the M7 music academy.
Presently, Abdullah Ibrahim divides his time between Cape Town and New York, remaining a prominent figure in the global music scene. His legacy encompasses over a hundred album credits, reflecting a lifetime dedicated to the pursuit of musical excellence and cultural enrichment.
Clips (more may be added)
Uncoiling from an Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix...
EX TERRA BRASILIS
Millions of short-path connections unite creators worldwide by means of the extraordinary mathematics of:
The Small World Phenomenon
—The Integrated Global Creative Economy
Take an artist... from Salvador, Havana, Brooklyn, Cape Town...
Writer, musician, filmmaker, painter, choreographer, architect, academic, fashion designer, chef...
Integrate this artist into a network of other artists around the world.
Our artist tends to within close proximity of all others in the network, in the identical manner in which most human beings are within some six degrees of most others.
The creative universe becomes a creative village in which all have access to all.
Inspired in the sensorial immanence of Borges' transfinites-inspired Alephs.
The Aleph / O Aleph
O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space...
Salvador is our base. If you plan to visit Bahia, there are some things you should probably know and you should first visit:
www.salvadorbahiabrazil.com
Linking to the Matrix from your media (to the Matrix in general / to your Matrix Page from your Instagram) plugs your people in.
https://linktr.ee
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; recorded "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): World's premier klezmer violinist
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
Conceived under a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to Havana and the provinces of Cuba to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...*
Sodré
*...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré, who summed up the irony in this sequence by opining for the ages: "Where there's misery, there's music!" Thus A Massa, anthem for the trod-upon folk of Brazil, which blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south until Sodré was silenced, threatened with death and forced into exile...
And thus a platform whereupon all creators tend to accessible proximity to all other creators, irrespective of degree of fame, location, or the censor.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome (seat of the Integrated Global Creative Economy* and where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where we built this matrix as an extension of our record shop).
Assis Valente's (of Santo Amaro, Bahia) "Brasil Pandeiro" filmed by Betão Aguiar
Betão Aguiar
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
*Darius Mans holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT, and lives between Washington D.C. and Salvador da Bahia.
Between 2000 and 2004 he served as the World Bank’s Country Director for Mozambique and Angola. In that capacity, Darius led a team which generated $150 million in annual lending to Mozambique, including support for public private partnerships in infrastructure which catalyzed over $1 billion in private investment.
Darius was an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he worked closely with the U.S. Treasury and the IMF to establish a framework to avoid debt repudiation and to restructure private commercial debt in Brazil and Chile.
He taught Economics at the University of Maryland and was a consultant to KPMG on infrastructure projects in Latin America.
Replete with Brazilian greatness, but we listened to Miles Davis and Jimmy Cliff in there too; visitors are David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR/WXPN
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
Susan Rogers
Alicia Svigals
Julian Lloyd Webber
Kamasi Washington
Clarice Assad
Randy Brecker
Herbie Hancock...
Bule Bule
Caetano Veloso
Darius Mans
Sparrow/Pardal Roberts
RÁDIO MATRIX