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Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Abdullah Ibrahim
1934 – 2026
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Water From An Ancient Well*
For Abdullah Ibrahim (1934-2026)
We are calmed by smoothing soothing sound
sweet ..soulful ..serene ..sensuous ..sensational
there are horns that challenge Gabriel’s
alto sax ..flute .. baritone sax ..trombone
double bass and drums .. a rhythmic backdrop
to the shimmering ..glimmering piano keys
let’s sit nearby ..beneath some shade ..meditate
consider our lives ..how one can dream .. believe
how you played through bitter times ..strove
for better times ..composed for better lives
Mandela called you the nation’s Mozart
The world honored your lifetime of music
You were Dollar Brand ..You were the Jazz Epistles
You were A Revolution In Four-Part Harmony*
You were AME gospel ..Cape jazz ..Ragas ..Bebop
African folk tales Township jive Classical jazz
You played tributes to Ellington ..Monk ..Coltrane
to Soweto martyrs ..freedom .. fighters
Collaborated with jazz greats like Max Roach
Randy Weston ..Hugh Masakela .. Elvin Jones ..Blue Mitchell
Your elegant piano graced stages at Newport
Carnegie Hall .. Cape Town ..Berlin ..Zurich
Exiled to New York City during apartheid
you filled venues like Village Vanguard ..Sweet Basil
Every composition was a call for love
A prelude to a dream ..An accolade to harmony
We are resting here by the Well ..Watching desert flowers bloom
Observing the African Dawn .. Seeing the clouds part
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by Mary K O’Melveny
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*This 1985 album features composer Abdullah Ibrahim on piano, Csrlos Ward on alto sax and flute, Ricky Ford on tenor sax, Charles Davis on baritone sax, Dick Griffin on trombone, David Williams on double bass and Ben Riley on drums. It is considered one of the finest jazz albums of all time. It includes a version of Mannenberg, Ibhrahim’s anti-apartheid tribute to Nelson Mandela originally written in 1974.
**Abdullah Ibrahim played a significant role in the 2002 documentary “Amandla: A Revolution In Four-Part Harmony” which depicted the key role that Black music and musicians played in the anti-apartheid struggle.
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Analog
…………………after “Soweto is Where It’s At,” Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya
…………………Live at Sweet Basil, New York City, 1987
I.
Sitting inches from your piano
I was struck
by how you ceded
the spotlight to the four winds,
let them explore their cardinal
directions, while you, self-effacingly,
brought the cry of the city
into being, sustained it through
this act of joy.
Afterwards, you reached deep
into your pocket—as if you
always carried a part of that city
with you—and handed me
the little box.
II.
I saw you at sunrise
as I came out of the subway,
you out of The Chelsea, huddled
against the chill of this city,
perhaps the public,
perhaps your own height.
I didn’t speak, not wanting
to be a burden.
But one day you met my eyes,
and smiled, recognizing by now
your co-conspirator in morning’s
early silence, just trying
to get to work
to coffee
to news, maybe from home,
in print.
I broke it, and reminded you
about what you had given me.
You told me that your mother,
in District 6, in another life,
another name, played the keyboard
in church, and I told you that my
mother, a world away, did too.
III.
Sitting, thirty-six years later, a different
city, so very far from your piano, the threat
of a southern summer deluge driving us
into the worst of acoustical worlds
for anything except the thump, the ping
of a basketball, there it was, still, your
trust, autumnal now, yielding the attention—
and most of the makeshift sound technology—
to a new band of juniors, while you
bowed out almost all together, as if
at peace that it would have required
an extraordinary feat of amplification
to hear you in that inhospitable place.
IV.
Back at home, the scent of sweet
basil in my garden, if no longer
on Seventh Avenue, I still know
where it’s at, still relish its
physicality, its imperfections,
the fact that it was passed from
one hand to another, still relish
the pop of opening
the dusty compartment,
the snap of putting it in,
the click of closing the door,
and hoping, hoping
it still works.
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by Susanna Schantz
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Listen to Susanna Schantz read her poem
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The ancient cassette Abdullah Ibrahim gave Susanna Schantz that is referred to in her poem
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Listen to the 1975 recording of Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) performing “Soweto is Where it’s At”
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Listen to the 2019 recording of Abdullah Ibrahim performing his composition “Dreamtime,” with Noah Jackson (cello); Alec Dankworth (double bass); Will Terrill (drums); Cleave Guyton Jr. (flute); Lance Bryant (tenor saxophone); Andrae Murchison (trombone); and Marshall McDonald (baritone saxophone). [Gearbox]
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Mary K O’Melveny, retired labor rights lawyer, lives with her wife near Woodstock, NY. Mary became a fan of Jazz as a very young girl listening to Louis Armstrong and Lester Young on her grandparents’ Victrola record player. Mary’s award-nominated poetry appears in many print and on-line literary journals, anthologies and national blog sites. Mary has authored three poetry collections. Her just-released fourth book, Flight Patterns, is available by clicking here
Click here to read If You Want to Go to Heaven, Follow a Songbird – Mary K O’Melveny’s album of poetry and music, published by Jerry Jazz Musician
Click here to visit her web site
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Susanna Schantz is the recipient of the 2026 Juniper Literary Prize for her debut collection Sign Broken, Message Inside (University of Massachusetts Press, 2027). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Common, dadakuku, Abridged Magazine, coastlines review: a journal of docupoetics, La Piccioletta Barca, Sein und Werden, The Humanist, and elsewhere. A former teacher and naturalist, she lives in South Carolina. You can find her at https://hemicraniacontinua.com/
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Click for:
A brief remembrance of Abdulla Ibrahim
A Letter From the Editor: On “The Weary Blues: Celebrating Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance”
Information about the book Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry, Vol. II (featuring women poets)
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
“Where the Music Wasn’t Allowed,” Jane McCarthy’s winning story in the 71st Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician
Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
Subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter
Helping to support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)
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Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced since 1999
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