Abdullah Ibrahim - The Song Is My Story (2014) / piano jazz

The 80-year-old Abdullah Ibrahim’s recent UK shows found him playing in whisper-quiet mode, entrancing some listeners who perhaps began by missing the South African piano giant’s old fire. Ibrahim now reflects in tranquility on the country’s people, landscape and political struggles, but – unlike some of his work of recent years – his new output is quiet without being solemn. This solo set of improvisations and a scattering of personal classics was captured at a concert in the Fazioli piano company’s hometown of Sacile, Italy; there’s also a DVD of concert footage and interviews. Ibrahim’s old Thelonious Monk allegiances are audible on Twelve By Twelve and in the darting chords and dissonances of African Dawn; and in the delicately embroidered Just Arrived he almost suggests a much slower Art Tatum. Most of this music works in gently blooming harmonies and quiet melodic turns varied by the odd boppish flurry, though on Kalahari Pleiades he hits an almost Jarrett-like groove. It’s all played with a remarkable liquid touch, and feels like a late-life Ibrahim renaissance.