Abdullah Ibrahim

We recorded this, we were in a studio in Cape Town, and this piece of music came.

in the studio.

We were busy recording some other pieces.

And we recorded it, just one take and left it, but we all felt so elated because we felt that we had captured the mood of the people at the time.

No.

Sounds good.

But the reason for doing that was because we needed to take the music out.

to the people, I mean live.

And sometimes it was problematic to have an acoustic piano, let alone a grand piano.

So we utilized the electric piano.

That was really the only reason for it.

How can we escape Ellington?

Exactly.

Even if people want to deny it, there's no way.

We do not just mean jazz musicians, but contemporary 20th century music, any way and anywhere that it is played, how can you escape Ellington?

Well, the musicians have a saying when we say...

We're going to have rehearsals, and they say, where's the paper?

Because I ask them to notate the basic skeleton of the piece first.

So what I would do is, when there's a new piece, the piano is like a command post.

And I just come into the studio and start playing, even while they're busy setting up and talking about...