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Titolo: Senzo
Condizione: Nuovo
Tipo: CD
Genere: Jazz
EAN: 0016728121224
Description: EDITORIAL REVIEWS
The incredible artistry and life of the South African septuagenarian pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim reads like a Hollywood movie: Born in Apartheid, growing up listening to church hymns, indigenous music and American jazz, he becomes one of his country s most accomplished musicians, and most famous, when Duke Ellington discovers and records him on his Reprise label in the sixties. He then lives in exile from his embattled homeland, redefines the parameters of jazz piano, before returning to a free South Africa after the fall of Apartheid as an esteemed world artist.

Ibrahim s magnificent life story unfolds in full aural splendor on this Sunnyside release, Senzo, a riveting and reverent twenty-two track solo piano studio recording that ranks among the all-time jazz piano masterpieces, including Thelonious Monk s Alone in San Francisco, and Bill Evans Alone. A practitioner of Japanese martial arts for four decades, Ibrahim has chosen Senzo as the CD s title (it means "ancestor" in Japanese and Chinese, and is the also Ibrahim s father's name). Ibrahim s otherworldly, pensive, yet propulsive pianism moves as it meditates; and grooves as it soothes, drawing from native African sonic syncopation and sources, as well as African-American religious themes, and of course, Ellington and Monk.

The nearly two-dozen tracks are an incredible potpourri of standards and original compositions that sing and swing in a number of tones and tempos: Banyana, Children of Africa, is a zesty dance, while Third Line Samba, a ditty inspired by the New Orleans street parades, reflects the experiences of the African Diaspora, contrasted by For Coltrane, a heartfelt tribute to the saxophone giant on par with Ibrahim s very personal take on Ellington s In A Sentimental Mood, and Ocean & The River open and close the CD and display Ibrahim s hypnotic sonic storytelling.

With enough stories to cover several lifetimes, told through eighty-eight keys, Abdullah Ibrahim s Senzo reveals that his ...uninhibited, intimate relationship with sound combines the sage wisdom of an ancient shaman with the insatiable curiosity of a little boy ...[the pianist] not only catches up with his ancestors, the widely traveled nomad also finds himself.

REVIEW
The last track of Abdullah Ibrahim's Senzo, "Ocean And The River," ends with a question mark - its final, unresolved note resonating with an unmistakable search for the next horizon. It's a promising finish to an album that might otherwise feel like a valedictory, as it represents Ibrahim's virtual autobiography in song.

The 22-part solo suite, all original except for a transformative musing on Duke Ellington's "In A Sentimental Mood," is a ruminative, deeply felt integration of themes and sounds from throughout the pianist's life. The title translates as "ancestor" in Japanese and Chinese, and is also the name of Ibrahim's father - an apt confluence of the cultural and personal that captures the at once introspective and expansive feel of this breathtaking CD.

Ibrahim relates his history in the manner of a weaver of folk tales, distilling his concepts into forms related in accessible, broad strokes that nonetheless communicate layers of meaning. Calling them simple might seem disparaging, but it's the difference between the simplicity of limited ideas and a simplicity achieved. Superfluous gestures have been dispensed with in favor of a direct emotionality.

Take "Blues For A Hip King," which in the course of six minutes evolves from smoky blues to wistful optimism to a memorable pop lyricism that would make Paul Simon jealous, to a gospel prayer almost too private to listen in on. With all of the tributes to John Coltrane that have been recorded over the years, "For Coltrane" has to be one of the most striking. No gushing love letter, it's a quietly spiritual tribute passed in a steely whisper. "Banyana, Children Of Africa" briefly touches upon the South African swing so important to Ibrahim's catalog, while "Blue Bolero" offers grand chamber drama.
- Shaun Brady --DownBeat - June 2009

Whether you think of him as Dollar Brand or Abdullah Ibrahim, whether it's his lean classicist's prowess or his jazz improvisational largess, the South Africa-born pianist has been a force to be reckoned with since his holy debut of 1960, Jazz Epistles: Verse I.

One could say "seriously" reckoned with, yet that somehow would detract from the fact that Ibrahim has been and can be warm and playful despite his staunchly studied classicism. While his time playing in bands behind Don Cherry and Gato Barbieri throughout the 1970s is proof of his humor, Ibrahim's compositions of the score for Chocolat shows his toasty sensuality. Fans of his duets with Max Roach can attest to this: Ibrahim can shake things up but with the smallest shift. Ibrahim has found a golden tenor throughout these 22 solo acoustic piano pieces that's witheringly emotional and heated. While "Prelude 'For Coltrane'" and "For Coltrane" return to the meditative hymnals of his start, Ibrahim goes even further, to his roots within South African traditionalism and its naturalistic settings. Take the short, sharp jab of "Tookah" or the rapid-fire epiphany of "Jabulani." While"Pula" offers up his own twinkling rain shower, "Banyana, Children of Africa" shows swirling potency.

So too, hotter and more strident, is an homage to his wife on "Blues for Bea." There's more blues to be had with Ibrahim's surprising leap into "Blues for a Hip King" and his oddly sharp "In a Sentimental Mood." But mostly there's serenity as he makes peace with the gods' goodliness on "Ocean & the River." At 74, he might show no signs of slowing, not from these stride piano runs or lucid bold improvs. But Abdullah Ibrahim gets that the great beyond is nearing. Senzo proves he's trying to outrun the inevitable while toying with its spirits.
- A.D. Amorosi --Jazz Times - August/September 2009
Artista: Abdullah Ibrahim
Numero di dischi: 1
Paese di origine: USA
Etichetta discografica: Sunny Side
Lingua: Inglese
Title Format: CD
Data d'uscita: 2009
Anno di pubblicazione: 2009

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