Akbank Jazz Festival: The Jazz Epistles: Abdullah İbrahim & Ekaya And Hugh Masekela at Akbank Jazz Festival at Uniq Hall

Inspired by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the Jazz Epistles was the first ever all-black bebop jazz group, founded in South Africa. The group members, who recorded their first –and last– album Jazz Epistle Verse 1 in 1959, had to flee to Europe after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. Meantime, Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Dollar Brand), the group’s pianist, was discovered in Zurich, by Duke Ellington; and he released his USA debut album by Duke’s support. Soon he was among the top pianist-composers of modern jazz arena in New York. His numbers “Mannenberg” and “Soweto”, recorded in the 1970’s, conquered the hearts of the Anti-Apartheid front and Nelson Mandela in South Africa...

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Inspired by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the Jazz Epistles was the first ever all-black bebop jazz group, founded in South Africa. The group members, who recorded their first –and last– album Jazz Epistle Verse 1 in 1959, had to flee to Europe after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. Meantime, Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Dollar Brand), the group’s pianist, was discovered in Zurich, by Duke Ellington; and he released his USA debut album by Duke’s support. Soon he was among the top pianist-composers of modern jazz arena in New York. His numbers “Mannenberg” and “Soweto”, recorded in the 1970’s, conquered the hearts of the Anti-Apartheid front and Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Reviving the spirit of Jazz Epistles, with a septet Ekaya (Home) he gathered together in the 1980’s, with this team, he recorded the albums Ekaya (1983), African River (1989), The Mountain (1989) and Sotho Blue (2010). And in 2016, after a 56-year-long hiatus, he reunited with trumpeter Hugh Masekela, another jazz icon of South Africa and his old colleague from the Jazz Epistles.

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