Capturing the ?Spirit of Africa? in the Jazz Singing of South African-Born Sathima Bea Benjamin

Abstract

In May 1961, one of Drum Magazine's reporters described the Sunday night jazz scene in Cape Town, South Africa. 2 The Sunday night gatherings had been initiated by Cape Town-born jazz pianist Dollar Brand. Dollar was not his real name. It was the nickname given to the young Brand to reference his American exchanges. These were the friendships he fostered with African American sailors when their ships arrived in the Cape Town harbor in the 1950s. He would change his name once more when he later converted to Islam. Though some people in Cape Town stubbornly hold onto the more familiar "Dollar Brand," Abdullah Ibrahim is the name by which he is known internationally. In the early 1960s, Dollar was the center of the Cape jazz scene: