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Hugh Masekela

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Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018)<ref name="BBC 23 Jan 2019">Template:Cite news</ref> was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home". He also had a number-one US pop hit in 1968 with his version of "Grazing in the Grass".

Early lifeEdit

Hugh Ramapolo Masekela was born in the township of KwaGuqa in Witbank (now called Emalahleni), South Africa, to Thomas Selena Masekela, who was a health inspector and sculptor and his wife, Pauline Bowers Masekela, a social worker.<ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref> His younger sister Barbara Masekela is a poet, educator and ANC activist. As a child, he began singing and playing piano and was largely raised by his grandmother, who ran an illegal bar for miners.<ref name="NYT"/> At the age of 14, after seeing the 1950 film Young Man with a Horn (in which Kirk Douglas plays a character modelled on American jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke), Masekela took up playing the trumpet. His first trumpet was bought for him from a local music store by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston,<ref name=bbc-did>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the anti-apartheid chaplain at St. Peter's Secondary School now known as St. Martin's School (Rosettenville).<ref>Fairweather, Digby, The Rough Guide to Jazz, St. Martin's Press (2004), p. 13 – Template:ISBN.</ref><ref name=bbc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Huddleston asked the leader of the then Johannesburg "Native" Municipal Brass Band, Uncle Sauda, to teach Masekela the rudiments of trumpet playing.<ref name=enca>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Masekela quickly mastered the instrument. Soon, some of his schoolmates also became interested in playing instruments, leading to the formation of the Huddleston Jazz Band, South Africa's first youth orchestra.<ref name=enca/> When Louis Armstrong heard of this band from his friend Huddleston he sent one of his own trumpets as a gift for Hugh.<ref name=bbc-did/> By 1956, after leading other ensembles, Masekela joined Alfred Herbert's African Jazz Revue.<ref name="Mojapelo2008">Template:Cite book</ref>

From 1954, Masekela played music that closely reflected his life experience. The agony, conflict, and exploitation faced by South Africa during the 1950s and 1960s inspired and influenced him to make music and also spread political change. He was an artist who in his music vividly portrayed the struggles and sorrows, as well as the joys and passions of his country. His music protested about apartheid, slavery, government; the hardships individuals were living. Masekela reached a large population that also felt oppressed due to the country's situation.<ref name="Stanley Niaah2007">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Following a Manhattan Brothers tour of South Africa in 1958, Masekela joined the orchestra of the musical King Kong, written by Todd Matshikiza.<ref name=sahistory>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> King Kong was South Africa's first blockbuster theatrical success, touring the country for a sold-out year with Miriam Makeba and the Manhattan Brothers' Nathan Mdledle in the lead. The musical later went to London's West End for two years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

CareerEdit

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At the end of 1959, Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim), Kippie Moeketsi, Makhaya Ntshoko, Jonas Gwangwa, Johnny Gertze and Hugh formed the Jazz Epistles,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the first African jazz group to record an LP. They performed to record-breaking audiences in Johannesburg and Cape Town through late 1959 to early 1960.<ref name="NYT"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Following the 21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre—where 69 protestors were shot dead in Sharpeville, and the South African government banned gatherings of ten or more people—and the increased brutality of the Apartheid state, Masekela left the country. He was helped by Trevor Huddleston and international friends such as Yehudi Menuhin and John Dankworth, who got him admitted into London's Guildhall School of Music in 1960.<ref name=times>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During that period, Masekela visited the United States, where he was befriended by Harry Belafonte.<ref name=indy>Template:Cite news</ref> After securing a scholarship back in London,<ref name="NYT"/> Masekela moved to the United States to attend the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he studied classical trumpet from 1960 to 1964.<ref name=guardian>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1964, Miriam Makeba and Masekela were married, divorcing two years later.<ref name=guardian/>

He had hits in the US with the pop jazz tunes "Up, Up and Away" (1967) and the number-one smash "Grazing in the Grass" (1968), which sold four million copies.<ref>Yanow, Scott. Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet, Backbeat Books (2001), p. 248. Template:ISBN</ref> He also appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and was subsequently featured in the film Monterey Pop by D. A. Pennebaker and mentioned in the song Monterey by Eric Burdon & the Animals. In 1974, Masekela and friend Stewart Levine organised the Zaire 74 music festival in Kinshasa set around the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match.<ref name=npr>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He played primarily in jazz ensembles, with guest appearances on recordings by the Byrds ("So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" and "Lady Friend") (the latter being denied by David Crosby) and Paul Simon ("Further to Fly"). In 1984, Masekela released the album Techno Bush; from that album, a single entitled "Don't Go Lose It Baby" peaked at number two for two weeks on the dance charts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1987, he had a hit single with "Bring Him Back Home". The song became enormously popular, and turned into an unofficial anthem of the anti-apartheid movement and an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela.<ref name="Slate 2013">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Greenwald 2015">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

A renewed interest in his African roots led Masekela to collaborate with West and Central African musicians, and finally to reconnect with Southern African players when he set up with the help of Jive Records a mobile studio in Botswana, just over the South African border, from 1980 to 1984. Here he re-absorbed and re-used mbaqanga strains, a style he continued to use following his return to South Africa in the early 1990s.<ref name=washington>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1985 Masekela founded the Botswana International School of Music (BISM), which held its first workshop in Gaborone in that year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The event, still in existence, continues as the annual Botswana Music Camp, giving local musicians of all ages and from all backgrounds the opportunity to play and perform together. Masekela taught the jazz course at the first workshop, and performed at the final concert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Also in the 1980s, Masekela toured with Paul Simon in support of Simon's album Graceland, which featured other South African artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Miriam Makeba, Ray Phiri, and other elements of the band Kalahari, which was co-founded by guitarist Banjo Mosele and which backed Masekela in the 1980s.<ref name="NME Rock 'N' Roll Years">Template:Cite book</ref> As well as recording with Kalahari,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> he also collaborated in the musical development for the Broadway play Sarafina!, which premiered in 1988.<ref name=last>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2003, he was featured in the documentary film Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony. In 2004, he released his autobiography, Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela, co-authored with journalist D. Michael Cheers,<ref>Masekela, Hugh. Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela, Crown Publishers (2004), Template:ISBN.</ref> which detailed Masekela's struggles against apartheid in his homeland, as well as his personal struggles with alcoholism from the late 1970s to the 1990s. In this period, he migrated, in his personal recording career, to mbaqanga, jazz/funk, and the blending of South African sounds, through two albums he recorded with Herb Alpert, and solo recordings, Techno-Bush (recorded in his studio in Botswana), Tomorrow (featuring the anthem "Bring Him Back Home"), Uptownship (a lush-sounding ode to American R&B), Beatin' Aroun de Bush, Sixty, Time, and Revival. His song "Soweto Blues", sung by his former wife, Miriam Makeba, is a blues/jazz piece that mourns the carnage of the Soweto riots in 1976.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also provided interpretations of songs composed by Jorge Ben, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Caiphus Semenya, Jonas Gwangwa, Dorothy Masuka, and Fela Kuti.

In 2006 Masekela was described by Michael A. Gomez, professor of history and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University as "the father of African jazz."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2009, Masekela released the album Phola (meaning "to get well, to heal"), his second recording for 4 Quarters Entertainment/Times Square Records. It includes some songs he wrote in the 1980s but never completed, as well as a reinterpretation of "The Joke of Life (Brinca de Vivre)", which he recorded in the mid-1980s. From October 2007, he was a board member of the Woyome Foundation for Africa.<ref>Board members Template:Webarchive, Woyome Foundation for Africa.</ref><ref>"Trumpet player and so much more, Hugh Masekela", African American Registry.</ref>

In 2010, Masekela was featured, with his son Selema Masekela, in a series of videos on ESPN. The series, called Umlando – Through My Father's Eyes, was aired in 10 parts during ESPN's coverage of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The series focused on Hugh's and Selema's travels through South Africa. Hugh brought his son to the places he grew up. It was Selema's first trip to his father's homeland.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Hugh-Masakela in 2013.jpg
Masekela in 2013

On 3 December 2013, Masekela guested with the Dave Matthews Band in Johannesburg, South Africa. He joined Rashawn Ross on trumpet for "Proudest Monkey" and "Grazing in the Grass".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2016, at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim performed together for the first time in 60 years, reuniting the Jazz Epistles in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the historic 16 June 1976 youth demonstrations.<ref>Podbrey, Gwen, "Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim to perform on one stage" Template:Webarchive, Destinyman.com, 4 May 2016.</ref><ref>"Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya and Hugh Masekela: A Tribute to Jazz Epistles", News, Abdullah Ibrahim website, 13 May 2016.</ref><ref>"Hugh Masekela & Abdullah Ibrahim perform a tribute to the Jazz Epistles in JHB", Black Major, 15 June 2016.</ref>

Social initiativesEdit

Masekela was involved in several social initiatives, and served as a director on the board of the Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization that provides a daily meal to students of township schools in Soweto.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="thelunchboxfund.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life and deathEdit

From 1964 to 1966 Masekela was married to singer and activist Miriam Makeba.<ref name="TG"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He had subsequent marriages to Chris Calloway (daughter of Cab Calloway), Jabu Mbatha, and Elinam Cofie.<ref name=guardian /> During the last few years of his life, he lived with the dancer Nomsa Manaka.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was the father of American television host Selema Masekela.<ref name="thelunchboxfund.org"/> Poet, educator, and activist Barbara Masekela is his younger sister.<ref>"Hugh Masekela: I’m still a work in progress", News24.com, 10 September 2014.</ref>

Masekela died in Johannesburg on the early morning of 23 January 2018 from prostate cancer, aged 78.<ref name="BBC 23 Jan 2019" /><ref name="TG">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards and honoursEdit

Masekela was honoured with a Google Doodle on 4 April 2019, which would have been his 80th birthday. The Doodle depicts Masekela, dressed in colourful shirt, playing a flugelhorn in front of a banner.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Grammy historyEdit

Masekela was nominated for a Grammy Award three times, including a nomination for Best World Music Album for his 2012 album Jabulani, one for Best Musical Cast Show Album for Sarafina! The Music Of Liberation (1989) and one for Best Contemporary Pop Performance for the song "Grazing in the Grass" (1968).<ref name=washington/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Hugh Masekela Grammy Awards history
Year Category Title Genre Label Result
1968 Best Contemporary Pop Performance – Instrumental Grazing in the Grass Pop Uni Template:Nominated
1989 Best Musical Cast Show Album Sarafina! The Music Of Liberation Musical Sonet Template:Nominated
2012 Best World Music Album Jabulani World Music Listen 2 Template:Nominated

HonoursEdit

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DiscographyEdit

AlbumsEdit

Year Title Label (original issue)
1962 Trumpet Africaine Mercury (Aug)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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1966 Grrr citation CitationClass=web

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1966 The Americanization of Ooga Booga MGM E/SE-4372 (Jun)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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1966 Hugh Masekela's Next Album citation CitationClass=web

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1966 The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela Chisa Records CHS-4101<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1967 Hugh Masekela's Latest Uni 3010, 73010<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1967 Hugh Masekela Is Alive and Well at the Whiskey Uni 3015, 73015<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1968 The Promise of a Future Uni 73028<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1968 Africa '68 citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1968 The Lasting Impression of Hugh Masekela MGM E/SE-4468 (Dec)<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1969 Masekela Uni 73041<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1969 The Best Of Masekela Uni 73051
1970 Reconstruction Chisa CS 803 (Jul)<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1971 Hugh Masekela & The Union of South Africa Chisa CS 808 (May)<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1972 Home Is Where the Music Is (aka The African Connection) Blue Thumb Chisa BTS 6003<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1973 Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz Blue Thumb Chisa BTS 62<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1974 I Am Not Afraid Blue Thumb Chisa BTS 6015<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1975 The Boy's Doin' It Casablanca NBLP-7017 (Jun)<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1976 Colonial Man Casablanca NBLP-7023 (Jan)<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1976 Melody Maker Casablanca NBLP-7036<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1977 You Told Your Mama Not to Worry Casablanca NBLP-7079<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1978 Herb Alpert / Hugh Masekela Horizon SP-728<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1978 Main Event Live (with Herb Alpert) A&M SP-4727<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1982 Home Moonshine/Columbia<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1983 Working For A Dollar Bill Vuka 1001
1984 Techno-Bush Jive Afrika<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1985 Waiting for the Rain Jive Afrika<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1987 Tomorrow Warner Bros.<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1989 Uptownship Jive/Novus Records<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1992 Beatin' Aroun de Bush Novus Records<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1994 Hope Triloka Records<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1994 Stimela citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1996 Notes of Life Columbia/Music<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1998 Black to the Future Shanachie Records<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
1999 The Best of Hugh Masekela on Novus RCA<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1999 Sixty Shanachie<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
2001 Grazing in the Grass: The Best of Hugh Masekela Sony<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

2002 Time Columbia<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
2002 Live at the BBC Strange Fruit<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
2003 The Collection Universal/Spectrum<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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2004 Still Grazing citation CitationClass=web

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2005 Revival Heads Up<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
2005 Almost Like Being in Jazz citation CitationClass=web

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2006 The Chisa Years: 1965–1975 (Rare and Unreleased) citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

2007 Live at the Market Theatre Four-Quarters Ent<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
2009 Phola Four-Quarters Ent<ref name="MasekelaBio"/>
2012 Jabulani citation CitationClass=web

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2011 Friends (Hugh Masekela and Larry Willis) House of Masekela<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
2012 Playing @ Work citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

2016 No Borders Universal Music
2020 Rejoice (Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela) World Circuit

Chart singlesEdit

Year Single Chart Positions
US Pop<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> US
R&B<ref name="whitburnr&b">Template:Cite book</ref> 		Can
1967 "Up-Up and Away" 71 47 -
1968 "Grazing in the Grass" 1 1 6
"Puffin' On Down the Track" 71 - 43
1969 "Riot" 55 21 55
1978 "Skokiaan"
with Herb Alpert 		- 87 -
1984 "Don't Go Lose It Baby" - 67 -

AutobiographyEdit

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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