Kyle Shepherd plays Abdullah Ibrahim at the Baxter

The Baxter describes the evening as a celebration of the legacy of one of the principal architects of South African jazz, played by a trio formed for the purpose. The point, according to the programme notes and the interviews the three have given this week, is not to reproduce Ibrahim's recordings. The trio will treat his compositions as living repertoire and work through them with improvisation and their own voices, the way Ibrahim's own bands treated the standards he grew up on.

No set list has been published, and it would be unusual for one to be. Ibrahim left more than sixty albums, and the tunes most people will be hoping for are the obvious ones: Mannenberg, recorded in 1974 and adopted as an anthem of the struggle years; The Wedding; Blue Bolero; Water from an Ancient Well. Whether the trio plays any of them is their call. What is certain is the format: the concert runs for ninety minutes without an interval, and the Baxter closes the doors once the music starts, so latecomers are not admitted.

Abdullah Ibrahim, born Adolph Johannes Brand and known for the first half of his career as Dollar Brand, is the musician most responsible for the sound that gets called Cape jazz: American jazz piano run through the gospel choirs, marabi and goema of the city he grew up in. He co-founded the Jazz Epistles, was heard by Duke Ellington in a Zurich club in February 1963 and recorded for him in Paris within the week, spent most of the apartheid years in exile in New York, and in 1974 came home long enough to record Mannenberg. He played at Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994 and kept touring into his nineties.

He died on 15 June 2026 after a short illness. Saturday's concert puts a full evening of his music on a Cape Town stage four months later, and the fact that it is Shepherd leading it matters. The line from Ibrahim to Shepherd runs through the M7 school where Shepherd's mother taught, and through the comparison that has followed Shepherd for years, which he has consistently answered by describing himself as part of a continuing tradition rather than a successor.

For his life and work, read our obituary, Abdullah Ibrahim: Meet Mr Cape Jazz, and his profile page. For the wider scene he came out of, see Ever heard of Cape jazz? and our interactive network of Cape jazz musicians, where Ibrahim and Shepherd both appear.

Tickets are R250 for general seating, sold online through Webtickets and over the counter at Pick n Pay stores. The Baxter lists no age restriction for this show. Doors close at the start, so plan to be seated by 18:50; the Baxter's own rule is no entry once the performance has begun, and with no interval there is no second chance to get in.

The Baxter Theatre Centre is on Main Road, Rondebosch, on the lower edge of the UCT campus and about a quarter of an hour by car from the city centre outside peak traffic. There is paid parking in the Baxter's own lot beside the building and on the UCT Middle Campus above it; the charge on performance nights has been nominal in the past, but confirm with the venue, as it is not stated on the event page. Rosebank and Rondebosch stations on the Southern Line are both within walking distance, though evening train services are limited, and most of the audience will arrive by car or ride-hailing app. Set your pickup on Main Road rather than inside the campus to avoid the queue at the exit.