3

Legendary South African composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim announces new album 3 out 12th Jan via Gearbox Records. Taken from his summer 2023 sold-out headline date at London’s Barbican Centre, the new album “3” follows suit and is spread across two performances – the first is recorded without an audience recorded ahead of the concert straight to analogue on a 1″ Scully tape machine, which had previously been used by Elvis at the famous Memphis-based Sun Studios

The recordings feature a number of special new tracks and moving arrangements influenced by the music of Ibrahim’s upbringing (gospel and jive, American jazz and classical music, sacred and secular), and arrangements of tracks by his friends and heroes such as Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, all interwoven by his fluidic and ebullient playing style. The recording also features spellbinding vocal performances from Ibrahim creating a powerful, pin-drop moment with heartbreaking songs about the pain of slavery sung in both an indigenous language and English. The whole thing is accentuated by the lack of percussion which highlights both the more poignant moments as well as the more energetic moments.