The Story of Hugh Masekela, The South African Jazz Hero
With no less than 40 albums to his name, all world-class jazz classics, and having had musical engagements with leading American superstars, Harry Belafonte, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon, and Stevie Wonder among others can only mean one thing that Hugh Masekela, the South African Jazz maestro was a global music titan.
Hugh was a master of trumpet, with extraordinary skills, but it would be grossly inaccurate to restrict the narration on who he was to his prowess in music. He was also an anti-apartheid crusader, with immense contribution to the struggle for liberation in a country where day-to-day life was defined by racial segregation orchestrated by the imperialists, one that largely disenfranchised the natives and subjected them to a life of indignity.
Hugh Masekela was sharp and witty, an exceptionally knowledgeable musician with a good sense of humor. He also had an excellent grasp of history and current affairs. That’s not all. He understood the role of music in society, as an art, reflective of the culture and traditions of the people.
In a 2016 interview with Citizen TV in Nairobi, he laughed off contemporary music as lacking in creativity. He blamed this on a deficiency of talent.
“A good musician must be good in at least one instrument,” he told his host while insisting vocals are also a classification under instrumentation, as such even if one is a singer, he has to be extremely good.
His rise to fame was spectacular. A missionary teacher, of Trevor Huddleston, noticed young Hugh’s potential and interest in music and incorporated him into his neighborhood group, Huddleston Jazz Band. Young Hugh had learned music from his mother, who entertained patrons in an illicit bar that served traditional liquor to workers from the gold mines in Soweto.
Hugh honed his skills on trumpet and became so good at it. Huddleston was so impressed that when he returned back to the USA, he told the jazz legend Louis Armstrong about Hugh, and Louis sent him a trumpet, his very first trumpet when he was only 16 years old.
His stature grew exponentially with the challenges of a difficult childhood amplifying his thirst for success, as deprivation is a known catalyst in nurturing talent. From the early 1950s, Masekela played music that mirrored his experiences, hardships, and exploitation of the natives that had become the order of the day. Masekela played with several groups, having expanded his repertoire beyond the trumpet to become a wizard flugelhornist, cornetist, and a skillful composer, as well, to sum it up, an all-round musician.
As violence escalated, resulting in the death of at least 70 protesters in March 1960, the government banned all forms of gatherings, and this had a direct impact on music. It also meant that musicians became targeted for their influence over the natives prompting young Masekela’s fleeing into exile.
In the USA, Masekela enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music and did numerous recordings. He became an international sensation, mingling with the crème de la crème of American music. He also reunited with his country person, Miriam Makeba, a musical dalliance that birthed a romantic relationship that culminated into a marriage that unfortunately only lasted for a few years.
Landing in the United States, the ancestral home of the jazz genre was a major boost to his career. The years that followed saw him engage in numerous musical activities and recordings. He helped organize several festivals, including music performances for the 'Rumble in the Jungle,' a boxing bout held in Kinshasa in 1974, featuring heavyweight champions, Muhamed Ali and Geroge Foreman, both Americans. The event remains one of the biggest sporting bonanzas to happen in Africa.
He recorded the hit song ‘Bring Him Back Home’ in 1984. The song became very successful and was later adopted as the unofficial anthem of anti-apartheid activism.
Although jazz as a genre of music hasn’t gained a foothold in the kwaito dominated Rainbow Nation, it has a global appeal and this could be one of the factors that made Hugh a global icon. It also happens that Hugh spent more than three decades of his career exiled in the USA, this not only honed his skills in music but also made sever his quest for a just nation back at home, coming in the era of civil rights activism in America.
His autobiography ‘Still Grazing’ which he penned in 2003, captures every detail of his musical and political journey. Hugh also participated in several documentaries, some of which sought to expound and lay bare the ugly fangs of apartheid during its peak. Masekela has won several awards in his career.
Hugh, born in Ramapolo Masekela in Emalahleni, South Africa, died of prostate cancer on January 21st, 2018. He shall be remembered not just as a jazz icon but as an anti-apartheid activist who did his best to ensure the unjust system came to an end, a task he exited this life fulfilled.By Jerome Ogola
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