Hugh Masekela

Though rooted in jazz with substantial credentials as a South African trumpeter and bandleader, Hugh Masekela achieved widespread commercial appeal by helping pioneer the world fusion style. His expressive work on trumpet and flügelhorn blended jazz elements with South African traditions alongside sounds from the broader African continent and its diaspora. The horn also appeared across numerous sessions in pop, R&B, disco, Afro-pop, and jazz settings. Both domestic and overseas successes marked his path, notably the 1968 number-one version of “Grazin’ in the Grass,” which registered on charts across five straight decades. Over a seven-decade span he performed with ensembles globally and joined forces with an extraordinary range of fellow musicians. Thirty years of exile from his homeland also positioned him as a compelling vocalist, songwriter, and vocal opponent of apartheid.

The 1966 release The Americanization of Ooga Booga highlighted his distinctive “township bop” approach. In 1972 he delivered the widely praised double album Home Is Where the Music Is, fusing funk and fusion textures with African jazz. Although he frequently streamlined his phrasing to accommodate mainstream pop constraints, Masekela demonstrated exceptional command of ballad and bebop idioms. The 1979 concert recording Main Event with Herb Alpert displayed an impressive spectrum of stylistic approaches. While most of the ’80s found him issuing dance-oriented club tracks, his live performances continued to feature jazz material. Chart activity resumed with the funky smooth-jazz projects Uptownship in 1990—the year of his return home—and Beatin’ Aroun De Bush in 1994. During the new century he issued recordings made in Johannesburg and Los Angeles, among them 2005’s Rejoice and Just Like Falling in Jazz. Jabulani from 2010 reached the top of the South African charts. His last lifetime album, the funky world-jazz-fusion set No Borders, appeared in 2016.

Masekela began singing and playing piano in childhood after watching the film Young Man with a Horn at age thirteen. He took up the trumpet the following year and performed with the Huddleston Jazz Band under the direction of anti-apartheid advocate Trevor Huddleston. After Huddleston’s deportation, Masekela helped establish the Merry Makers of Springs together with Jonas Gwangwa. He subsequently joined Alfred Herbert’s Jazz Revue and worked in studio ensembles that supported popular vocalists. Masekela played in the orchestra for the musical King Kong, whose cast featured Miriam Makeba, and participated in the Jazz Epistles alongside Abdullah Ibrahim, Makaya Ntshoko, Gwangwa, and Kippie Moeketsi.

Following the March 1960 Sharpeville massacre, Masekela and his then-wife Makeba departed South Africa in 1961, one year ahead of Ibrahim and Sathima Bea Benjamin. Assistance came from musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, John Dankworth, and Harry Belafonte. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and later at the Manhattan School of Music. His profile rose sharply in the early ’60s through recordings for MGM, Mercury, and Verve that developed his signature African/pop/jazz hybrid. Relocating to California, he launched the Chisa label to document his own work and that of other exiled artists. Several albums extended this approach and brought pop breakthroughs; “Grazing in the Grass” topped the charts in 1968 and ultimately sold four million copies worldwide. That same year he filled arenas across the country, including Carnegie Hall. Early-’70s sessions paired him with Monk Montgomery & the Crusaders.

A more ethnically oriented direction shaped his ’70s output. In London he recorded with Nigerian Afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti & Africa 70, then participated in a date with Dudu Pukwana, Eddie Gomez, and Ntshoko that yielded his landmark jazz/African album Home Is Where the Music Is. Tours of Guinea with the Ghanaian Afro-pop group Hedzoleh Soundz led to a series of joint recordings made in both California and Africa, with guest contributions from the Crusaders, Patti Austin, and others. Alternating between the United States and Africa, he produced a successful pop/dance project with Herb Alpert in the late ’70s. Mid-’80s involvement in Paul Simon’s Graceland tour coincided with continued recording and production work for Makeba.

Masekela returned to South Africa in 1990 upon Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. Visits to Zimbabwe and Botswana yielded two albums with the Kalahari Band that again merged jazz-rock, funk, and pop. From the mid-’90s onward he issued a steady flow of albums and compilations illustrating his range and deepening engagement with South African jazz. Activity persisted into the first decade of the twenty-first century with Live at the Market Theatre in 2007, Phola in 2009, and two 2012 releases: Friends, recorded with Larry Willis, and Jabulani, drawn from South African wedding customs recalled from childhood. Although the jazz emphasis of his output fluctuated, the affirmative qualities of his catalog far outweighed any shortcomings, and his stature as an international emblem of resistance to oppression remains incalculable. Hugh Masekela passed away in Johannesburg in January 2018 at the age of seventy-eight.

March 2020 brought the release of the collaborative album Rejoice with pioneering Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen on World Circuit. Introduced by Fela Kuti in the early ’70s, the two musicians had long shared ideas about music and intended to record together; schedules finally aligned in 2010, allowing them to capture the encounter under producer Nick Gold. The resulting sessions, all original compositions by the pair, remained unfinished and archived until after Masekela’s death. Allen and Gold, with the estate’s full approval and involvement, completed the project with additional players including Joe Armon-Jones, Tom Herbert, Mutale Chashi, and Steve Williamson, returning to the same London studio. Issued in March 2020, just five weeks before Allen’s passing on April 30, Rejoice became the final album for both artists.