Hugh Masekela
 

The first time I heard Hugh Masekela`s name was when Eric Burden sang the line, “Hugh Masekela`s music was black as night” on the Animals track, Monterey, written to celebrate the famous 1967 pop festival. And now thanks to the internet, anyone can listen to the performance that inspired EB`s comment :-



Hugh Masekela is a trumpeter with credentials to spare; he has played with Fela Kuti, championed the cause of Nelson Mandela, toured with Paul Simon and made about 40 albums in a variety of styles. Yesterday, for the first time, I heard the instrumental double, Home Is Where The Music Is which to my uneducated ears compares well to some of Miles Davis`s material. Nonetheless, according to the MB search engine Hugh Masekela has just three mentions in this forum, while Miles Davis is mentioned 424 times !

So, I thought it might be time to redress the balance. Why has MB paid so little attention to this worthy musician? I`m sure some people here are better aquainted with the guy`s work than I am, in which case I`d like to know; which are the Masekela albums to check out, and which are the ones to avoid ?

In the meantime, if you have 10 mins to spare, lose yourself in the slow beauty of this track from Home Is Where The Music Is :-

Thanks for the reminder in the best jazz double albums thread Lisnaholic. I was looking on Wikipedia and Masekela has an impressive 42 albums to his credit. I must admit he doesn't ring any bells but I will check him out.

Unfortunately, I can't give you any recommendations for Hugh Masekela's albums (I'm only familiar with him through his work with Fela Kuti) but you have inspired me to dig into his catalog.
I'll let you know what I turn up in my musical excavation.

I happen to love Hughe Masekela's music- I have a few of recordings. Probably my favorite song is Vasco Degama the sailorman. For those of you who have never heard it the song is about the Spanish explorer who " discovered" America to which many enslaved Africans were brought.

He was also married to Miriam Makeba at one time- if you have never heard her music definitely give it a listen. I have several of her works -love them!!

Welcome to MB, tygerlilyzz ! It`s good to meet another admirer of Hugh Masekela. I `d never heard the track you mentioned, so I put it here for other people`s benefit too.



Not that many songs manage to combine great music with a little lesson in history.
I think one challenge for a song that presents a social message is, " How much do you want to listen to the song after you`ve absorbed the message ?" I think HM passes that test with your song - as he does with this haunting piece, in which he also makes a polemical statement :-



Any specific album recommendations, tygerlilyzz ? According to stp, the guy has 42 albums, so a little advice would be welcome !

There are nice and some interesting videos share that is too interesting and i like it too much..............

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