Hugh Masekela

Photo credits:  Dino Codevilla & Mark Shoul

When Hugh Masekela became the only artist to take centre-stage before an audience of billions at both the 2010 FIFA Kick-Off and the event’s Opening Ceremony in the centre of Soweto’s Soccer City, it was a very public confirmation of the musician and songwriter’s unparalleled standing within the South African music scene as well as a reminder of his global reach. Just a few months later, in October 2010, Masekela headed for North America where he undertook a multi-date, sold-out tour of the territory that included performances at Carnegie Hall (New York City), Royal Symphony Hall (Chicago) and the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Canada, as well as featuring as the opening act for the London Jazz Orchestra at the London Royal Festival Hall that November.

His signature Afro-jazz sound, honed as early as the 1950s, has won him devotees the world over.  He has collaborated with legends including Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie, The Byrds, and Miles Davies, toured with Paul Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the late Miriam Makeba, recorded close to 40 studio albums and appeared as a guest on the records of countless other artists.

With an epic string of sell-out performances and tours, Masekela has entertained and inspired millions of listeners for over 6 decades and rightly earned his status as one of the greatest jazz musicians in history.

As detailed in his compelling autobiography, Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela (co-authored with D. Michael Cheers, published in 2004 and named for his 1968 US hit Grazing in the Grass), this artist first laid his hands on a trumpet whilst still a scholar at St. Peter’s, a Johannesburg boarding school run by missionaries. Growing up listening to the greats: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing, Miles Davis, Masekela’s talent found the stimulation it required to kickstart his career.

Masekela’s musical training has been world-class. Following the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and the increased brutality of the Apartheid state, Masekela left South Africa and was admitted into London’s Guildhall School of Music through the help of Trevor Huddleston and international friends including Yehudi Menuhin and John Dankworth. Miriam Makeba, who was already enjoying major success in the United States, along with Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie and John Mehegan later helped Masekela to obtain admission to the Manhattan School of Music in New York.

Although his accolades are too many to mention, notable performances include; the 1959 musical King Kong which set South Africa's first record with blockbuster theatrical success.  King Kong toured South Africa for a sold-out year with Miriam Makeba and Nathan Mdledle and subsequently went to London's West-End for a further two years; a reunion Christmas Day concert with Miriam Makeba in Lesotho in 1980 witnessed by an 75,000-strong audience; his first solo tour of South Africa, Sekunjalo, in 1991, which featured bands Sankomota and Bayete.  The extravagant four-month tour sold out throughout the country's major cities and resulted in the live DVD release, Homecoming Concert.

Masekela was also a member of The Jazz Epistles in the 50’s which was incidentally the first African Jazz Band to record an LP in history.

Recordings and performances aside, Masekela has made his mark in other ways.  He created a record label, Chisa Records, in 1970, started the International School of Music with Dr. KhabiMngoma in Botswana in 1981,and influenced musicians all over the globe by living in London, New York, Guinea, Liberia, Ghana, Botswana, Los Angeles.

And at 70-something, this icon shows no signs of slowing down.   He remains on the cutting-edge of the music scene, working with emerging names such as South African house producer Black Coffee and psych rockers, the BLK JKS.