AILSA CHANG, HOST:
When South African jazz great Abdullah Ibrahim spoke to NPR back in 2007, he reflected on living through the terror of apartheid.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ABDULLAH IBRAHIM: I remember one evening in Cape Town. The police, they were on the rampage shooting people down. It was ugly.
CHANG: Channeling the resilience and defiance of those who fought against the brutal system, Ibrahim would compose what became an anthem of the anti-apartheid movement - "Mannenberg," named for the Black township in Cape Town.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
IBRAHIM: And then we realized that we had created something which was tradition, but it was affirmation of a new dawn to come.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOLLAR BRAND'S "MANNENBERG")
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Abdullah Ibrahim died at 91 on Monday. The man referred to by Nelson Mandela as our Mozart left behind a huge jazz contribution to Africa and the world.
JOHN MASON: With Abdullah Ibrahim, we have to understand him as a product of Cape Town. In particular, the colored community in Cape Town.
FLORIDO: John Mason teaches African history and the history of photography at the University of Virginia.
MASON: Well, I think his contribution is to bring that particularly South African, particularly Cape Town musical sensibility into the broader world.
CHANG: Born Adolph Brand, Ibrahim was influenced by the diverse communities surrounding him - traditional Chinese music, Black gospel and Irish reels, jazz, boogie-woogie and big-band broadcasts on Voice of America.
FLORIDO: As a teenager, he started playing the piano in dance bands, forming groups with other young South African musicians, including a short-lived septet with Hugh Masekela named The Jazz Epistles. His music was an alchemy of those rhythms infused with an African beat.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOLLAR BRAND'S "AFRICAN MARKETPLACE")
CHANG: In 1962, Ibrahim fled apartheid and landed in Zurich. At the time, Duke Ellington was touring Europe and became a fan and a supporter, supervising the recording of Ibrahim's first U.S. album, performed under the name Dollar Brand Trio.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE DOLLAR BRAND TRIO'S "DOLLAR'S DANCE")
FLORIDO: Changing his name and converting to Islam in the late 1960s, Ibrahim returned to live in Cape Town in 1973. There he recorded his most famous piece, "Mannenberg." Here's Ibrahim speaking about the song to NPR back in 2007.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
IBRAHIM: The song itself is just pure plain traditional music. But it was a combination of Cape Town, Johannesburg. Everybody could relate to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOLLAR BRAND'S "MANNENBERG")
CHANG: He continued recording and performing for decades, including an appearance at NPR's Tiny Desk in 2022.
(SOUNDBITE OF ABDULLAH IBRAHIM'S "SIGNAL ON THE HILL")
FLORIDO: John Mason believes Ibrahim will be remembered as a pioneer beside Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and other jazz greats.
MASON: Broadening our sense of what jazz is and what jazz can be.
(SOUNDBITE OF ABDULLAH IBRAHIM'S "SIGNAL ON THE HILL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.