Abdullah Ibrahim / Dollar Brand - Recorded Live 1978

What best example could one have of the art of Abdullah Ibrahim than this Autobiography " The pianist regarded at the time as his more beautiful concert solo? As the title of the disc indicates it, it is all the history, the culture, the meetings and the interrogations of the musician which ravel in this extraordinary voyage. Ibrahim jumps of a topic, an air, a melody to another like one dodges the water puddle pools, without any rupture in the continuity and the logic of his musical thought. One has the impression that, inside himself, he reconstituted, reorganized, recomposed by preserving all his culture and his evolution since his childhood: musics and popular songs. South-African, entertaining (dance, festival) like functional (anthems, steps) which rythm life, American black jazz, European classical music... All that produced a perfectly built and coherent musical mixture. Never, in spite of the abundance of parts which are followed, there is the impression of a juxtaposition, a joining. No piece " is retracted " to pass to the following, all have their place, their function, their role and their significance in the architecture of this large fresco. They are sand-gravel mix surges which thunder, powerful waves which roll, coloured sparks which burst, aggregates of notes touffus, or time of calm meditations, tender and deep melodies, the nostalgic calls followed by abrupt resolutions, of the dreams of hope, the songs repeated... One collects oneself then, after some steps, one is carried by the dance... almost frighten before peace does settle and the harmony finally reigns. Let us follow while reading them the titles of the pieces while they are played, notice as all are connected and intersected naturally, listen how an harmonic and rhythmic expansion very marked announces a typical anthem which itself is transformed into standard of jazz! Let us discover how Ellington and Monk are completely absorbed and returned with a different breathing.