Ibrahim trio gives ‘African Suite’ a New Age feel

Abdullah Ibrahim’s “African Suite” came to life as a recording in 1997.

And it is still probably better known in that medium than it is as a live, performed work.

On Friday night at the Cerritos Center, Southland jazz fans had a rare opportunity to hear “African Suite” in living color, performed by the Ibrahim jazz trio and a 20-piece string orchestra.

The presentation came in a different sequence from the album version but otherwise was an accurate rendering of a work that has received consistently high critical praise.

It is, however, something of a misnomer to describe “African Suite” as a “work.” More accurately, it is a collection of individual pieces from Ibrahim’s large catalog of numbers, gathered into a grouping and orchestrated for jazz trio and string orchestra by Swiss composer Daniel Schnyder. In that sense, it’s the sort of collaboration that took place between Miles Davis and Gil Evans in their recordings of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. And, similarly, “African Suite” reflected differing musical views, but without the complex emotional layering that was present in the music produced by the Davis/Evans partnership.

The linkage between Ibrahim’s pieces and Schnyder’s orchestrations was clearly founded upon the contemplative quality that represents one aspect of Ibrahim’s music. Schnyder’s string arrangements, with their floating rhythms and thick textured block harmonies provided the ideal setting for the trio’s dreamy, cloud-like improvisational excursions.

Occasionally -- but not often enough -- stormy outbursts of rhythm served as reminders of the music’s gestation in jazz.

In his first recordings from the ‘60s, Ibrahim, originally known as Dollar Brand (before he converted to Islam in the ‘60s), superbly illuminated the rich creative stream flowing between African music and jazz. The opening set by the Ibrahim trio captured some of those invigorating qualities. But the “African Suite” more frequently drifted into the placid backwaters of well-crafted, jazz-tinged New Age music.