Abdullah Ibrahim, who helped define a genre of South African jazz music, has died at the age of 91, his family has said.

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He "passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family in Germany, after a short illness", according to a statement released on behalf of the family.

His "creations honoured the South Africa that shaped his political commitment and musical brilliance", President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his tribute.

Ibrahim, born Adolph Johannes Brand in 1934, grew up in Cape Town and began composing at the piano at the age of seven by picking out tunes on the keyboard. He would go on to have a career that spanned eight decades and dozens of recordings.

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These included the 1974 track Mannenberg, one of his most famous compositions, that later became linked to the struggle against white-minority rule in South African and apartheid, the system of legalised racism.

Ibrahim, who was initially known on stage as Dollar Brand, changed his name after converting to Islam in the late 1960s.

As a teenager, the pianist and composer played in a swing band, his own trio and then in a sextet called the Jazz Epistles, which also included another South African jazz great, Hugh Masakela.

As apartheid, which began to be legally enforced in 1948, became increasingly rigid, jazz music, which was seen as counter-cultural and encouraged racial mixing, was looked down on.

The political situation in South Africa led to the break-up of the band, and Ibrahim moved to Switzerland.

American jazz legend Duke Ellington heard Ibrahim and took him to the US. Gradually, his distinctive style began to emerge - music that recalled the sounds of South Africa, and mixed his country's vocal and harmonic traditions with the rhythmic feeling and improvisation of jazz, according to a BBC Radio 3 profile.

📰 Source: BBC Africa