Adolph Johannes Brand was born in Cape Town in 1934. During school breaks, he’d listen to Duke Ellington records at the nearest record dealer’s shop, and spent his pocket money on 78 rpm recordings by Ellington’s orchestra. He adopted the moniker Dollar Brand for his first recordings, before changing his name to Abdullah Ibrahim on conversion to Islam in 1968.
These two albums date from the heroic but brief period before Ibrahim and fellow musicians fled apartheid in 1962, and comprise the pianist’s debut as trio leader, followed by the classic recording of the Jazz Epistles from two weeks earlier, featuring Kippie Moeketsi (alto saxophone), Hugh Masekela (trumpet) and Jonas Gwangwa (trombone).
These superb recordings show how the finest South African jazz of the time drew on American models yet also showed a distinctive individuality. For instance, Boulevard East from the trio album begins with a two-minute, left-hand ostinato that is characteristic Brand/Ibrahim, then becomes an F major blues that is close to Blue Monk, on which Brand sounds like a cross between Ellington and Monk, before synthesising the ostinato and the blues in a rolling rhythm.
The third track begins with the tremolo chords of the anthemic Sad Times, Bad Times, then turns into the swing rhythm of King Kong. The empathetic interplay between Gertze and Ntshoko provides strong support for the pianist.
Plays Sphere Jazz gives the impression of contemporary American bebop. The Jazz Epistles album perhaps turns back a little to Ellington’s big band playing of the 1950s, in a reduced sextet format – but again, this is a South African take on jazz, by undoubted modernists, featuring four compositions by Moeketsi, three by Brand and one by Masekela. Outstanding is the final track, the Moeketsi composition Scullery Department, with its ingenious shifts of form and style. This is an essential purchase – one of the great releases of South African jazz.
Discography
(1) Boulevard East; Khumbula Jane; Sad Times, Bad Times/King Kong; Blues For B; Misterioso; Just You, Just Me; Eclipse At Dawn; (2) Dollar’s Moods; Blues For Hughie; Uku-Jonga Phambili; I Remember Billy; Vary-Oo-Vum; Carol’s Drive; Gafsa; Scullery Department (78.24)
(1) Brand (p); Johnny Gerze (b); Makaya Ntshoko (d). Johannesburg, 4 February 1960.
(2) add Hugh Masekela (t); Jonas Gwangwa (tb); Kippie Moeketsi (as). Johannesburg, 22 January 1960.
Essential Jazz Classics EJC55768
