Hugh Masekela
Singer, composer, trumpeter, cornetist, flugelhornist – is there anything that Hugh Masekela can’t do? The legendary musician from Witbank, South Africa may be is his seventies now, but is still performing with the same fire and passion he’s always had. And if his inspiring show at the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Johannesburg is anything to go by, he’ll be going strong for some time yet.
Gifted with sublime natural talent, Masekela began his love affair with music by singing and playing the piano as a young boy. However, after seeing Kirk Douglas’ performance in the 1950 movie ‘Young Man With a Horn’, Masekela was inspired to take up the trumpet. He was given his first trumpet by anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, and began learning the instrument under the tutelage of Johannesburg Municipal Brass Band leader, Uncle Sauda. Masekela quickly mastered the instrument and inspired several of his schoolmates to take up music. This resulted in the formation of South Africa’s first youth orchestra, the Huddleston Jazz Band.
Masekela’s music echoed his personal experience of the South African political and social apartheid system. Like many other black South African musicians of the time, his music became an embodiment of the struggle, giving expression to the collective pain of an oppressed people. This made Masekela incredibly popular, particularly after the formation of the Jazz Epistles in 1959 alongside Dollar Brand, Johnny Gertze, Kippie Moekesti and Makhaya Ntshoko. The group became the first African jazz band to record an album, and regularly performed to sell-out crowds across South Africa.
However, in March 1960, the oppression of the apartheid era entered one of its most brutal stages. After 69 Africans were shot and killed during a peaceful protest in Sharpeville, the South African government banned social gatherings of more than ten people. This was too much for Masekela to bear, and he left the country in self-imposed exile. After spending time at the Guildhall School of Music in London, Masekela visited North America and met Harry Belafonte. With his help, Masekela settled in the US and enrolled at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, where he spent four years studying classical trumpet. Following his graduation, Masekela had a string of jazz hits, the most notable being his 1968 number one, ‘Grazin’ in the Grass’, which sold over four million copies in the US.
After years of recording and performing live all over the world, Masekela had a hit single in 1987 with ‘Bring Him Back Home’. The single became both a signature track for the movement to free Nelson Mandela from imprisonment, and an anthem for the world tour that followed the ANC leader’s release in 1992. By that time, Masekela had finally returned home, determined to play his part in the change so desperately needed in South Africa. After the release of ‘Phola’, his most recent album, Masekela was presented with the ‘Order of Ikhamanga’ at the 2010 South African National Orders Ceremony. Recognising excellence in an artistic, cultural or sporting field, the award is a fitting tribute to one of the finest South African musicians of all time.
