Track Listing

1. Mindif
2. Ishmael
3. Tsakwe - Abdullah Ibrahim,
4. Call
5. Damara Blue
6. Wedding
7. Blanton (Orchestra Only) [Instrumental]
8. Aspen (Piano Solo)
9. Barakaat
10. Tintinyana
11. Mountain of the Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #162329 in Music
• Released on: 1999-07-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com
This ambitious and rather magisterial music is the result of merging Abdullah Ibrahim's unique approach to the piano with a large string orchestra. The string arrangements are by Daniel Schnyder and, in fact, give this CD its primary tone and structure. According to Schnyder, Ibrahim's music is a unique amalgam of jazz harmonies, Liszt (and other Romantic-era pianists), African rhythms, and the idiosyncratic tendencies of Thelonious Monk. African Suite stresses the inherent orchestral colors, providing Ibrahim a more overtly celestial-sounding context in which to play his brand of jazz. Overall, the music has a stately quality, bordering on solemn, but Ibrahim's natural soulfulness still comes through, helping maintain a nice balance between reverence and earthy swing. --Wally Shoup

Customer Reviews

A new dimension to Ibrahim's haunting sound.
If you have fallen in love with Ibrahim's beautifully crafted, while at times down and funky soweto sound then you must hear this album. The strings fit incredibly well with the piano, adding a new dimension to the already spiritual experience of Abdullah Ibrahim's music.

A perfect album for unwinding with trance like and bewitching melodies. Bought this for a friend who sent me a note a few weeks later - "being lulled to sleep my Abdullah every night".

Buy it and tell your friends - why isn't this man more widely known ??

Jazz Orchestra? You Bet!
If Ellington, Gillespie and Mingus (and maybe a little Monk)could collaborate today, I think this is what you might hear. Lush, but never the least bit cumbersome, Ibrahim finds a way to make orchestration propel his themes rather than back them. Dynamics are especially spectacular. "Ishmael" in particular feels like some magic postscript of Gillespie's "Caravan" and Ravel's "Bolero." Cool stuff.

Background, foreground - wherever, it's high ground
There are loads of folks out there who like the idea of jazz but can't really take too much of "the real thing". So they buy "lite" versions and brave the insults. You know what I mean. You know who I mean. Then there are those hard-core jazz lovers who like the real stuff, honks, squeaks and discord.

Abdullah Ibrahim somehow bridges those two camps. His music is always authentically jazz, yet never self-indulgent or listener-unfriendly.

There are some majestic pieces on this album - in particular Ishmael, which I first downloaded free through Real. It's an album you can live to or listen to equally. To maintain the integrity of my own star ratings, there aren't quite enough compellingly sublime moments to make it a straight five, but it's a firm four. Few people would find it anything less than a real pleasure.