ABSTRACT
As a schoolboy Abdullah Ibrahim collected discs by Dollar Brand. He cuts an impressive figure: tall, dressed in black, and sitting very upright at the piano, directing his musicians with a nod or a turn of the head. In person, face to face, he's even more impressive, with a firm, powerful handshake and a sense of calm and self-containment that he attributes to years of studying martial arts. He is South Africa's leading jazz pianist, and, particularly since the end of apartheid, one of the most influential musicians on the new generation of players that are emerging in his country. Much of the South Africa he knew and loved as he was growing up has also vanished, but since the late 1960s he has captured the atmosphere of his homeland in music. He turned his back on a promising career in American cutting-edge jazz with drummer Elvin Jones.
