Hugh Masekela Notes.Indd

Cal Performances Presents Wednesday, February , , pm Zellerbach Hall Hugh Masekela’s Chissa All-Stars Hugh Masekela fl ugelhorn, vocals, band leader Francis M.E. Fuster percussion Sello Montwedi drums John Blackie Selolwane guitar Arthur Tshabalala keyboards, vocals Abednigo “Fana”Zulu bass, vocals Ngenekhaya “Khaya” Mahlangu saxophone, vocals Tshepo Mngoma violin Th emba Elliot Mokoena second guitar Sibongile Khumalo lead & backing vocals Nakosinathi “Nathi” Gcabashe lead & backing vocals George Cruze tour manager Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank. CAL PERFORMANCES 15 About the Artists About the Artists Hugh Masekela Gwangwa and some of the aforementioned musi- After a pilgrimage to Zaire in , he met fi rst recordings. Hugh’s favorite musician today is cians. King Kong was South Africa’s fi rst blockbust- Fela in Nigeria and again with Stewart Levine, the late Franco of Zaire, and he claims that he’s Ever since the day in when Archbishop Trevor er theatrical success, touring the country for a sold- he met Hedzoleh Soundz, a grassroots Ghanaian still learning music. Huddleston gave him his trumpet, Hugh Masekela out year with Miriam Makeba and the Manhattan band Fela introduced them to. For the next fi ve has played music that closely refl ects his beginnings Brothers’ Nathan Mdledle in the lead roles. Th e years, they produced a string of hit records, in- as a little boy in Witbank. Th e street songs, church musical later spent two years on London’s West cluding international favorites such as “Th e Chissa All-Stars songs, migrant labor work songs, political protest End. At the end of , Abdullah Ibrahim, Kippie, Marketplace,” “Ashiko.” “Th e Boys Doing It,” songs and the sounds of the wide cross-section of Jonas, Makhaya Ntshoko, Johnny Gertz and Hugh “Vasco da Gama,” “African Secret Society” and the Long before the term “world music” was coined, ethnic culture South Africa possesses from Xhosa, formed the Jazz Epistles, the fi rst African group to evergreen “Stimela.” After a tour and two duet al- South African born trumpeter and fl ugelhornist Zulu, Swazi, Khoi-sa, Griqua, Sotho and Tswana record an LP, and performed to recordbreaking au- bums with Herb Albert, Hugh and Miriam played Hugh Masekela was ingeniously fusing his own peoples of the south, southeast, central and west- diences in Johannesburg and Cape Town. a concert in Lesotho on Christmas Day to a vibrant post-bop style with R&B, pop and African ern regions to the Ndebele, Tsonga, Venda and After the March , , Sharpeville crowd of ,, who had come to see them after rhythms. In , Masekela became an overnight Pedi provinces of the north and northwest. Th e Massacre, in which Africans peacefully protest- they had been away from the region for years. In sensation with his irresistible instrumental hit urban sounds of the townships, the infl uences of ing the pass laws, along with thousands of their fel- , Hugh moved to Botswana, where he started “Grazing in the Grass.” With its breezy horn lines the Manhattan Brothers, Dorothy Masuka, the low comrades, were mercilessly mowed down, the the Botswana international School of Music with and catchy, percussive rhythms, the song topped Dark City Sisters, the Mahotella Queens and ensuing national outrage caused the government Dr. Khabi Mngona. His record label Jive Records the Billboard charts, earned a Grammy nomina- Mahlathini, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Miriam to proclaim a state of emergency and the banning helped him to set up a mobile studio in Gaborone, tion—eventually selling four million copies world- Makeba, Spokes Mashiyane, Lemmy Mabaso, of gatherings by more than people. As the bru- where Levine produced Techno Bush, on which the wide. Since then, Masekela has recorded with a Elijah Nkwanyana, Kippie Moeketsi, Mackay tality of the apartheid state increased, Hugh fi nally hit single “Don’t Go Lose It Baby” appeared. In broad spectrum of artists from Fela Kuti and Harry Davashe—all these form an intrinsic part of his left the country with the help of Trevor Huddleston , he unexpectedly had to leave for England Belafonte to Herb Alpert and Th e Byrds. In the musical roots, intertwined with vivid portraits of and his friends Yehudi Menuhin and Johnny with his band Kalahari, his wife Lindi Phahle and s, he toured with Paul Simon in support of the the struggles and the sorrows, the joys and passions Dankworth, who got him admitted into London’s others, having been swept up in raids on so- acclaimed album Graceland, which also featured of his country. Guildhall School of Music. Miriam Makeba, who called “communist terrorist camps” manned by South African artists Ladysmith Black Mambazo After Huddleston asked Uncle Saude, the was already enjoying major success in the United South African Anti-Apartheid activists. and Masekela’s ex-wife, Miriam Makeba. leader of the Johannesburg “Native” Municipal States, Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillepsie and John While in England, Masekela conceived the In addition to Hugh’s extensive career as one Brass Band, to teach Hugh the rudiments of Mehegan later helped him to get admission to the Broadway musical Sarafi na with Mbongeni Ngema of Africa’s most beloved performers, he is also the trumpet-playing, he quickly proceeded to master Manhattan School of Music in New York. and recorded the hit “Bring Back Nelson Mandela” founder and co-owner of Chissa Records—South the instrument. Hugh’s initial inspiration was Hugh fi nally met Louis Armstrong, who in with Kalahari. After touring Graceland Africa’s fi rst and only black-owned record label. As the fi lm Young Man with a Horn, in which Kirk had sent the Huddleston Band a trumpet after with Paul Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo the label’s producing manager, Hugh has been at Douglas portrayed the great American jazz trum- Huddleston told the trumpet king about the band and Miriam Makeba, Masekela returned home the helm recording many of South African classic peter Bix Beiderbecke. Soon, some of his music- he helped start back in South Africa before depor- following the un-banning of political parties and roots performers and he has also been instrumental loving schoolmates also became interested in play- tation. With help from Makeba and Belafonte, the release of Nelson Mandela in . In , he in launching the careers of many of his country’s ing instruments, leading to the formation of the Hugh eventually began to record, gaining his fi rst launched his fi rst tour of South Africa, “Sekunjalo musical new garde. Chissa received nine nomina- Huddleston Jazz Band, South Africa’s very fi rst breakthrough with Th e Americanization of Ooga- Th is Is It,” with Sankomota and Bayete; it was a tions at the South African Music Awards. youth orchestra, at St. Peters Secondary School, Booga, produced by the late Tom Wilson, who four-month tour, selling out in the country’s major For this very special tour, Hugh supplements where the anti-apartheid priest was chaplain. had been producer of Bob Dylan and Simon & cities. His recent albums, Black to the Future and his regular group with renowned South African Huddleston was deported by the racist govern- Garfunkel’s debut successes. Stewart Levine, his Sixty, have both gone platinum. classical and Afro-pop diva Sibongile Khumalo ment of the time for his emancipation militancy, business partner in Chissa Records, went on to pro- Masekela uses his position to give a platform and Afro-jazz performer and producer “Khaya” and when Hugh kept on badgering him to help duce hit records for Hugh on Uni Records, begin- to a fresh generation of South African talent. He Mahlangu—as well as a few others from the label’s him leave the oppressive country for music educa- ning with Alive and Well at the Whisky in and was heavily infl uences by African-American music impressive roster—to comprise his fi ery “Chissa tion opportunities abroad, the priest worked very then Promise of a Future in , which contained since his infancy, having been raised on the rpm All-Stars” ensemble. hard to get him to England. After playing in the gigantic hit song “Grazing in the Grass.” gramophone records of the jazz greats since his Ranging from the traditional Township jazz dance bands led by Zakes Nkosi, Ntemi Piliso, By the s, Masekela had attained interna- infancy. He attended school with Dave Grusin, and mbaquanga of Soweto, through classic Afro- Elijah Nkwanyana and Kippie Moeketsi, Hugh tional fame, selling out all of America’s festivals, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, David Izenzon, pop, and onward to the urban kwaito music of joined the star-studded African Jazz Revenue in auditoriums and top nightclubs. Heeding the call Donald Byrd, Eric Dolphy, John Handy, Les modern Johannesburg, the music of the Chissa . Following a Manhattan Brothers tour of the of his African roots, he moved fi rst to Guinea, then McCann, Eddie Gomez, Richard Davis and Ron All-Stars showcases South Africa’s ever-rich cul- country in , he playied in the orchestra for to Liberia and Ghana after recording the historical Carter, and played on some of Bob Marley’s very tural, political and musical journey. Todd Matshikiza’s musical, King Kong, with Jonas Home Is Where Music Is with Dudu Pukwana. 16 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 17.

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