Masekela Hugh 1939 - 2018 (79)
My biggest obsession is to show Africans and the world who the people of Africa really are.
QUOTES
Hugh Masekela (1939-2018) was a South African composer, singer, trumpeter, band leader and political activist known for writing anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home". Born in Witbank, South Africa on April 4, 1939, at the age of 14, he was given a trumpet and he soon formed his first band, the Huddleston Jazz Band.
In 1960, at the age of 21, he left South Africa and lived for 30 years away. Upon his arrival in New York he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music in that golden age of jazz music. He met and collaborated in New York clubs with great musicians, he was encouraged to develop his own style of music, with African and not American influences. His first album, released in 1963, was entitled Trumpet Africaine.
In the late 1960s he moved to Los Angeles, in 1968, his single "Grazin in the Grass" reached No. 1 on the American pop charts. His career spanned 5 decades, during which he released more than 40 albums (and participated in countless others) and has collaborated with many great artists such as Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie, The Byrds, Fela Kuti, Marvin Gaye, Herb. Alpert, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Miriam Makeba.
Hugh returned home in 1990, following the release of Nelson Mandela, and in 2004 he published his fascinating autobiography. In 2010 he created the exciting musical, Songs of Migration. Masekela started his own studio and record company "House of Masekela" at the age of 75 and by continuing a busy international touring program until old age, he used his worldwide fame to spread the word about the restoration of Africa's cultural heritage. In 2015 he founded the Hugh Masekela Heritage Foundation to continue this work for future generations.
He died in 2018.