South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela has been playing music for over 70 years and is about to release his 44th album, No Borders (Universal), a particularly apt title in these days of rising nationalism. He told City Press of Capetown recently that his new album has "an international diaspora kind of feel … So that people can see we're all the same".
Masekela is, along with saxophonist Manu Dibango and drummer Tony Allen, one of the most well-known African jazz musicians. He started at seven with a new trumpet bought by Father Trevor Huddleston and played in his school band. Before long he was gigging with bands, learning how to play along to mbaqanga, a popular style sometimes known as Township Jive. On his new album he continues to use the rhythms of this infectious and original popular music.
He became a key part of the Cape Town jazz scene, playing trumpet in the Merry Makers Orchestra and also in the first all-African jazz opera, King Kong, the latter of which featured the vocal talents of another South African jazz great, the late Miriam Makeba. But the most important band he formed during the 1950s was The Jazz Epistles with piano great Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Dollar Brand), Kippie Moeketsi, Jonas Gwangwa and Johnny Gertze. Sadly, this supergroup only released one album, Jazz Epistle Verse 1.
The Cape Town jazz scene was smashed as the South African authorities bulldozed the area in the late 1950s. Makeba had already left and had been exiled as apartheid was expanded to curtail cultural activities by black South Africans. Masekela joined her in exile and she connected him to Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach and John Coltrane; he was also befriended by Harry Belafonte. He began his recording career and started to use the rhythms of South Africa and, in particular, mbaqanga.
His 1968 album, The Promise Of A Future, included an instrumental Grazing In The Grass, which stormed up the pop charts to become his biggest hit and it made him into an international star (the Manhattan Brothers and Miriam Makeba already had chart hits before his breakout).
But if you want one album to celebrate this wonderful musician's vast repertoire, I would recommend I Am Not Afraid, released in 1974. This album contains a terrific cover of Dizzy Gillespie's A Night In Tunisia but the album's key song is the haunting epic lament Stimela. This is a song about the hardships of the southern African migrant workers who have to travel by train. It's a brilliant political song, one of the best written in the 20th century.
The new album sees the veteran musician revisiting some of his travels in Africa and the music that emerged, trips to see to Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti in Nigeria, Congolese women in Kinshasa and the roots of mbaqanga (as on a new version of The Rooster and the upbeat KwaZulu). He is accompanied on his latest musical venture by several talented musicians, including veteran Zimbabwean bandleader and singer Oliver Mtukudzi, jazz guitarist Kunle Ayo and Congolese-born singer-songwriter Tresor Riziki. Masekela's son, Sal, also appears on the album. The album is about to be released and I have only heard a few tracks so far but one of them, Shuffle & Bow, a scream against slavery, is so good I will have to get this album as soon as possible. In the meantime, there are various compilations available on this master musician, which are a good starting place for exploring Masekela's music.
For the past few weeks, other great South African musicians have been spinning on my turntable courtesy of an excellent compilation, Next Stop Soweto Presents Spirit Of Malombo, Jabula, Jazz Afrika 1966-1984. This compilation features the talented guitarist Philip Thabane who founded Malombo with mallet drummer Julian Bahula. Thabane later worked with dancer drummer Gabriel "Mabee" Thobejane and revolutionised jazz performance in South Africa. Thabane, Julian Bahula and saxophonist Dudu Pakwana are all names to look out for when searching for South African jazz.
Jazz musicians in South Africa were rarely recorded by the big commercial record labels like Gallo during this period, so it is harder to find their original records as they were released by smaller music companies with limited production runs. As a result, compilations are a good source of South African jazz if you can't find the vinyl.
This columnist can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
