South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim dies aged 91

South African jazz composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has died at the age of 91.

His family announced his death in a statement released Monday.

“Abdullah passed away peacefully with South Africa and its people in his heart,” wrote his partner, Dr Marina Umari. “His love for his country never wavered, no matter where in the world he found himself.”

Ibrahim died in Germany after a short illness.

The musician, born in Cape Town, once said he started composing music at the age of seven but made his professional debut at 15 and went on to become a known figure within local jazz circles in the 1950s before he recorded an album with a group known as the Jazz Epistles in 1960. Jazz Epistle Verse One was the first full-length jazz LP by Black South African musicians.

Their music was not explicitly political, but they were still targeted by the government.

Ibrahim moved to Europe in the 1960s where he met Duke Ellington, who he went on to record with before he moved to New York in 1965. “I always say we never thought of Ellington as an African American – we thought of him as a wise old man in the village,” Ibrahim said in 2024. “You have any musical problem or inspiration, you go to Ellington. And he has been that bulwark for many, many, many musicians.”

Abdullah Ibrahim Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/The Guardian

In the US, he performed at the Newport jazz festival and embarked on a solo tour, also stepping in for Ellington on a number of occasions.

“We don’t really leave, you know,” he said in 1984 about moving away from South Africa. “It’s a tactical retreat. We regard ourselves as cultural freedom fighters. And when our cadres, our young people, go outside the country for training, we don’t say that they left – it’s a tactical retreat.”

In his career, he would go on to record more than 70 albums, the most recent of which was released in 2023.