In 1963, singer
Sathima Bea Benjamin persuaded
Duke Ellington to see her future husband,
Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as
Dollar Brand), play in a club in Europe.
Ellington was impressed by both of the recent South African émigrés and arranged with Reprise to record them. While Brand's record came out within a year, Benjamin's debut was lost and not heard for decades, even by the singer. As it turned out, engineer
Gerhard Lehner had made a second copy and kept it for all of these years, so the initial 1997 release of this important session was possible. Backed by pianist
Ibrahim, bassist
Johnny Gertze, drummer
Makaya Ntshoko, and (on two songs apiece)
Duke Ellington or
Billy Strayhorn, and occasionally joined by violinist
Svend Asmussen (who here plays exclusively pizzicato, as if he were using a high-pitched guitar), Benjamin's voice sounds quite beautiful. She performs two
Ellington tunes, Strayhorn's "Your Love Has Faded," and nine standards, with the emphasis on slow ballads. The moody music is often haunting and quite memorable. ~ Scott Yanow