Departures of note

Abdullah Ibrahim was born on 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and began piano lessons at age seven, making his professional debut at fifteen. Growing up in the multicultural port areas, he absorbed traditional African songs, gospel, and jazz, shaping his distinctive musical voice. In the late 1950s he joined the pioneering Jazz Epistles, recording the first full-length jazz LP by Black South African musicians. Facing apartheid repression, he left South Africa in 1962, first settling in Europe and later moving to New York in 1965, where he collaborated with Duke Ellington, Max Roach, and many other jazz luminaries. Ibrahim’s composition “Mannenberg” became an iconic anti‑apartheid anthem, and he was widely regarded as the leading figure of Cape jazz. He recorded extensively, performed worldwide, and married jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, with whom he had two children, including rapper Jean Grae. He continued to tour and record into his later years, earning numerous honors for his contributions to music and cultural resistance, before passing away on 15 June 2026 at the age of 91.