Dollar Brand aka Abdullah Ibrahim

Dollar Brand aka Abdullah Ibrahim

Source: All Music

Born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim, went by Dollar Brand before becoming Muslim in 1968. He'd picked up "Dollar" during World War II as a customer for used 78 rpm records from American soldiers. He began training at age seven to begin performing professionally at age fifteen with such as the Willie Max Big Band. He took up martial arts about that time due that he didn't perform in the friendliest neighborhoods.

Data for this article is collected from Discogs and Lord's Disco. Lord finds Brand in two sessions as early as October 1 of 1954 in Johannesburg with the Tuxedo Slickers Orchestra for 'Mbube', 'Mlamlankunzi', 'Isililo' and 'Za Jika'. Discogs has 'Isililo' and 'Za Jika' issued on Quality TJ 3 and 'Mbube' with 'Mlamlankunzi' on Quality TJ 4 in South Africa on unknown dates. I but assume they were issued that year.

In 1959 Brand helped form the Jazz Epistles with trumpeter, Hugh Masekela. Named after Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers', the Jazz Epistles were the first black ensemble to record jazz in South Africa, the album, 'Jazz Epistle - Verse 1', gone down in Johannesburg on January 22, 1960 toward issue that year. That was an especially remarkable occasion, as apartheid had been the official policy of the National Party government (1948-94) of South Africa for twelve years, such that black talent of all kind found South Africa a better place to be from than at.

'Vary-Oo-Vum'  Dollar Brand w the Jazz Epistles

From the album 'Jazz Epistle - Verse 1'

Trumpet: Hugh Masekela   Composition: Dollar Brand

Album recorded 22 Jan 1960 in Johannesburg, South Africa

Issued on Continental CON-T14

'Scullery Department'  Dollar Brand w the Jazz Epistles

From the album 'Jazz Epistle - Verse 1'

Trumpet: Hugh Masekela   Composition: Kippie Moeketsi

Album recorded 22 Jan 1960 in Johannesburg, South Africa

Issued on Continental CON-T14

'Dollar Brand Plays Sphere Jazz' ensued on February 4, issued in South Africa in 1962. That was with a trio consisting of Johnny Gertze (bass) and Makaya Ntshoko (drums). Brand was member of the retinue of 'King Kong', a musical about the heavyweight boxer, when he first saw Europe on tour there, the show appearing in London in 1961. In 1962 Brand left for Europe for good with vocalist, Sathima Bea Benjamin, whom he would wed in 1965.

In Zurich in 1963 Benjamin gained the audience of Duke Ellington for Brand's Trio, that resulting in two sessions on February 24: Lord's Disco comments that the Enja date of February 23 for Benjamin's 'A Morning in Paris' is incorrect. That was with the same trio as above, with both Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (Ellington's composer) contributing to tracks minus Brand. Be as may, that wasn't issued until 1997 by Enja in Germany. Lord indicates a second session on the 24th toward the 1965 release of 'Duke Ellington Presents The Dollar Brand Trio', again with Gertze and Ntshoko.

'Dollar's Dance'  Dollar Brand w the Dollar Brand Trio

From the album 'Duke Ellington Presents The Dollar Brand Trio'

Bass: Johnny Gertze   Drums: Makaya Ntshoko   All compositions: Brand

Album recorded 24 Feb 1963 in Paris   Issued on Reprise Records RV 6027

Contradictions arise with Brand's Trio plus Benjamin for 'The Dream' issued in 1991. To simplify I go by Lord who has that recorded live at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan Les Pins, France, on July 28, 1963. Lord comments that the date of 1968 by JMY is incorrect. Lord speculates that Brand recorded 'Ubu Suku' on the same date at the same venue, that included on 'I Giganti del Jazz 19' issued in 1984 [RYM]. On the 7th and 10th of January 1965 Brand was featured at the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Bent Jaedig's 'Easter Joy' ('Jubulani') and 'Waltz', those included on 'The Free Spirit: Recordings 1963-2003' in 2009. Come the Jazzhus Montmartre on January 30, 1965, for 'Anatomy of a South African Village' ('65). Titles were pulled from that session for a 1979 issue of 'The Dream', not the same as the later issue in '91 above, and with Brand's Trio only (Benjamin out). Come March 16 of 1965 for 'This Is Dollar Brand' ('73) in London. A visit to Europe that year by Ellington found Brand and Benjamin following him back to the States where Brand's Trio performed at the Newport Jazz Festival that year on July 4, a Sunday, the day after Ellington's performance on the 3rd. An ensuing tour of the States with Ellington was significant in that Brand led Ellington's orchestra on five occasions in early 1966, a heady promotion remarking Brand to be an especially high-caliber musician by that time.

Remaining in the States, Brand then joined drummer, Elvin Jones, recording 'Midnight Walk' in March of 1966. A Rockefeller Foundation grant in 1967 found him studying at the Juilliard School of Music in NYC. It was a duo with tenor saxophonist, Gato Barbieri, in Milan for 'Hamba Khale!' on March 16, 1968. It was also '68 when he and wife, Benjamin, became Muslims, he then to exchange Dollar Brand for Abdullah Ibrahim. Though he continued professionally as Brand into the nineties I henceforth refer to him as Ibrahim.

Ibrahim recorded three more albums in '69 and '70 on tours to Europe before 'Peace' and 'Dollar Brand + 3' in October of 1971, that per his first return to Johannesburg since having left in 1962 nine years before. Skipping ahead to 1974, after a tour to Tokyo that year in February for 'African Breeze' he visited South Africa again, this time to put down ''Underground in Africa', about his seventeenth album. That was followed in June in Cape Town per 'Mannenberg' b/w 'The Pilgrim' released in 1974. 'Mannenberg' would become the theme song of anti-apartheid, and was a very early spearhead toward what would become known as Cape jazz in the nineties once South Africa lost the National Party and apartheid in 1994. Among American names with whom Ibrahim recorded in the seventies was Buddy Tate in 1977 in a quartet with Cecil McBee (bass) and Roy Brooks (drums) for 'Buddy Tate Meets Dollar Brand'.

'Ode to Duke'   Abdullah Ibrahim

From the album 'Ode to Duke Ellington'   Composition: Ibrahim

Album recorded 12 Dec 1973 in Ludwigsburg, Germany

Issued in Japan on Philips 6385 656 in 1974

'Kalahari'   Abdullah Ibrahim

From the album 'Underground In Africa'   All compositions: Ibrahim

Album recorded March 1974 in Johannesburg   Issued on Mandla KRS 114

'Mannenberg'   Abdullah Ibrahim

From the album 'Mannenberg Is Where It's Happening'   All compositions: Ibrahim

Album recorded June 1974 in Cape Town   Issued on The Sun SRK 786134

'Goduka Mfundi' ('Going Home')   Abdullah Ibrahim w Buddy Tate (tenor sax)

From the album 'Buddy Tate Meets Dollar Brand'

Album recorded 25 August 1977 in NYC   Issued on Chiaroscuro CR 165

Reissued on CD as 'Buddy Tate Meets Abdullah Ibrahim' in 1996   Chiaroscuro CR 165

'Whoza Mtwana'   Abdullah Ibrahim   Live at Montreux 18 July 1980

Composition: Abdullah Ibrahim

'Water from an Ancient Well'   Abdullah Ibrahim

From the album 'Water from an Ancient Well'

Album recorded Oct 1985 in Englewood Cliffs NJ   All compositions by Ibrahim

Issued on Black-Hawk Records BKH 50207

Once the 46-year old presiding government of the National Party was ended by the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994 Ibrahim returned to Cape Town to reside.

'The Wedding'   Abdullah Ibrahim

From the album 'African Suite'

Album recorded 12-17 Nov 1997 at L'Abbatiale De Payerne in Switzerland

All compositions by Ibrahim  

All arrangements by Daniel Schnyder

'Joan' (ending)   Begin 'Cape Town Flower' at 2:20   Abdullah Ibrahim

Lugano Jazz Festival   Switzerland   July 1999

(Art Garfunkel also appeared at this jazz fest)

Compositions: Ibrahim  

It was 1999 when Ibrahim founded the school of music, M7, in South Africa. Rolling into the 20th century, 'Akapa Ludomo' went down with the NDR Big Band in Hamburg, Germany, on 24 June 2000, released on Tiptoe TIP-888840. Ibrahim's 'Calypso Minor' of 2010 below had first been recorded by him for the soundtrack to the 1990 film directed by Claire Denis, 'S'en fout la mort' ('No Fear, No Die').

'Akapa Ludomo'   Abdullah Ibrahim   Album

Recorded 24 June 2000 in Hamburg   Issued on Tiptoe TIP-888840

All compositions by Ibrahim

'Blue Bolero'   Abdullah Ibrahim   Album: 'African Magic'

Recorded live 13 July 2001 in Berlin   Issued on Tiptoe TIP-888845 2

Composition by Ibrahim

'Jacaranda Blue Suite'   Abdullah Ibrahim

Filmed live in Leverkusen, Germany   1 Nov 2007

Bass: Belden Bullock   Drums: George Gray

'Calypso Minor'   Abdullah Ibrahim   Album: 'Sotho Blue'

Composition by Ibrahim   1990

Recorded May 2010 in Bonn   Issued on Intuition Records INT 3433 2

Abdullah Ibrahim in concert w Ekaya   Heineken Jazzaldia 2011

Issuing well above fifty albums, Ibrahim's 'The Song Is My Story' appeared in 2014. 'The Balance' and 'Dream Time' went down in 2019, the same year he was honored an NEA Jazz Master.

Abdullah Ibrahim w Ekaya   Album: 'The Balance'

Recorded Nov 2018 in London   Issued on Gearbox GB 1554

Beyond music, Ibrahim has long since been a Black Belt in the martial arts, that engaged with zen philosophy. Though Ibrahim is well into his eighties he yet tours internationally.