The life of legendary jazz icon Bra Hugh Masekela remembered
‘STIMELA, sihamba ngamalahle, sivel’ eTalakubayi’
This is probably the songs legendary musician Hugh Masikela will best be remembered for, as all South Africans, from royalty to the ordinary man on the streets continue to mourn his passing.
Tributes are still pouring in from world leaders and icons, while fans continue to celebrate and comfort each other following the death of Bra Hugh on Tuesday morning.
The legendary jazz icon who flew the South African flag across the globe, lost his life after battling prostate cancer since 2008.
According to reports the jazz veteran underwent eye surgery in March 2016 after the cancer spread, and had to go into theatre again in September 2016 after another tumour was discovered.
In December Masakela’s manager, Josh Georgiou, confirmed that his client was fighting the disease with everything he had, but had to cancel most of his gigs owing to his poor health.
From humble beginnings to world stages
Masekela was born on 4 April 1939 in Witbank, and as a child he began playing the piano.
A movie about jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke titled Young Man with a Horn inspired him to shift his music instrument allegiances.
Anti-apartheid activist, Father Trevor Huddleston, helped Masekela to acquire a trumpet and ensured he received tuition, resulting in him joining South Africa’s first youth orchestra, the Huddleston Jazz Band.
In the late ‘50s, Masekela joined up with Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim), Kippie Moeketsi, Jonas Gwangwa, Johnny Gertze and alternatively with Early Mabuza or Makaya Ntshoko on drums to form The Jazz Epistles.
They performed regularly at the Odin Theatre in Sophiatown.
In 1959 he joined the cast of Todd Matshikiza’s all-African jazz opera King Kong.
The musical, which also helped launch the career of Miriam Makeba, received permission to perform in London in 1961.
With the Sharpeville massacre in mind and jazz being seen as an expression of resistance, performances and broadcasts in South Africa were severely restricted.
Masekela took the opportunity, along with many other members of the cast, to remain in England, effectively going into exile and enrolled at the London Guildhall School of Music. He later moved to the Manhattan School of Music in New York.
That’s where he befriended musician and political activist Harry Belafonte, and his music increasingly began reflecting the harsh realities of repression and discrimination back home.
After falling in love with the late Miriam Makeba, Bra Hugh married the ‘African Queen’ in 1964, but the couple divorced in 1966.
US success
Masekela had success in the United States with a pop-jazz tune, ‘Up, Up and Away’ which was launched in 1967.
He performed at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival alongside Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, before releasing Grazing in the Grass in 1968, which reached number one on the pop and R&B charts.
In 1970, he toured Guinea with Makeba and met Nigerian AfroBeat musician Fela Kuti and the Ghanian band Hedzoleh Soundz.
This led to his breakthrough album Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz, one of the most highly regarded Afro-jazz albums of the decade.
In 1974 Masekela released his album I Am Not Afraid, which included Stimela.
He performed on recordings by the Byrds and made an album in 1978 with trumpeter and bandleader Herb Alpert, and later collaborated with Paul Simon.
In 1985 he founded the Botswana International School of Music (BISM), focusing his music more on mbaqanga sounds.
In 1987 he performed with Paul Simon during the Graceland tour, along with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
In the early 1990s Masekela opened a short-lived jazz club in the building previously housing the Picadilly Cinema in the bohemian Rockey Street in Yeoville, Johannesburg.
In 2004 his autobiography Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela was released, highlighting his struggle over decades with alcoholism.
He continued to perform regularly, hosting Hugh Masekela and Friends Live in Concert at Montecasino.
In June 2016, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 16 June uprising, he reunited with fellow Jazz Epistles, Abdullah Ibrahim and Jonas Gwangwa, to perform together for the first time in 60 years at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg.
He received numerous awards throughout his life, among them the Order of Ikhamanga (South Africa), an honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of York (2014), a Doctor of Music (honoris causa) from Rhodes University (2015) and the African Music Legend Award - Ghana Music Awards (2007).