Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya to tour SA

Abdullah Ibrahim and his band Ekaya will be touring South Africa in February hot on the heels of the launch of their new album, Sotho Blue

The band members - all from New York – are Cleave Guyton (alto saxophone, flute), Keith Loftis (tenor saxophone), Jay Brandford (baritone saxophone), Andrae Murchinson (trombone), George Gray (drummer), Belden Bullock (bassist) and Ibrahim's unmistakable piano hymns like a choir of many voices. The pieces are originals from the past of Ekaya.

Ibrahim says while the spirit is the same, the attitude has changed. The past and the future flow together in the present for Ibrahim. The slogan "Back to the Future" is not something cool or mellow for him, but instead it belongs to the ritual basic equipment of his music.

As a result, the recapitulation of these songs, some already 25 years old, has nothing to do with revisionism, melancholy or even self-importance as can often be heard from the old jazz heroes. Or, to put it in Ibrahim's words, "The new Ekaya provides us with the unique opportunity to question our past in order to plan our future."

He says that following the Soccer World Cup 2010, we listen to the songs in a much different way than in the 80s. Abdullah Ibrahim addresses a younger audience, which did not exist yet in 1985 and for whom apartheid was a cruel part of the past but which has been overcome. But still, “The deep inner significance of the old and the new will never change. It crystallizes precisely in this moment. The now and then are realised in an eternal sound."

Sotho Blue will be in the shops in South Africa in February 2011. Tickets can be purchased through Computicket.

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