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Home , Angelique Kidjo, Hugh Masekela, King Kong (1959 musical), Masekela, Still Grazing, The Jazz Epistles

Wednesday, March 11, 2015, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Hugh &

20 Years of Freedom

Hugh Masekela & lead vocals Vusi Mahlasela guitar & lead vocals Francis Fuster percussion Ian Herman drums Mongezi Ntaka guitar Randal Skippers keyboards Abednigo Sibongiseni Zulu bass guitar

The program will be announced from the stage.

Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES 15 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

WO OF ’s poets of freedom and copies in 1968 and made him an international Trenowned musical icons come together to star. He later played an integral role in Paul honor 20 years since the start of democracy in Simon’s tour behind the classic album South Africa and the official end of the Graceland, which was one of the first pop régime. In a collaborative perform - records to introduce African music to a ance with members of each stars’ band, Hugh broader public. Masekela and Vusi Mahlasela will pay celebrate Hugh Ramopolo Masekela was born on the struggle and victory in @> Years of Freedom , April 5, 1939 , in , near . playing some of the most famous protest music Masekela showed musical ability from a and many of their own hits, too. Both artists young age and began playing piano as a child. have been like-minded musical comrades at Inspired by the movie Young Man with a Horn home in South Africa for years and have shared (in which plays a character the stage on several occasions; however, this modeled after American trumpeter Bix season marks the first time the two artists have Beiderbecke), Mr. Masekela began to play the toured together. The collaboration began in . He was encouraged by anti- earnest in October 2014, when they opened Apartheid activist Father , ’s South Africa Festival, entitled who helped him acquire an instrument. Ubuntu: Music and Arts of South Africa , and At Father Huddleston’s request, Mr. Masekela welcomed special guests and then received tuition for trumpet playing from Somi to join the stage with them for several Uncle Sauda, who played for the Johannesburg numbers. Mr. Masekela and Mr. Mahlasela re - “Native” Municipal Brass Brand. Mr. Masekela traced an outline of the history of the resist - soon mastered the trumpet and began to play ance to apartheid through some of the most with other aspiring musicians in the memorable songs of the period, including Huddleston Jazz Band—South Africa’s first Mr. Masekela’s “Bring Back ” youth orchestra. sent the and “Stimela,” Mr. Mahlasela’s “When You band a trumpet as a way of supporting their Come Back,” and Johnny Klegg’s “Asimbonanga.” efforts. Mr. Masekela later secured a gig in the Perhaps the most emotional song of the pit band for the musical . King Kong evening was “Weeping,” which contains the was South Africa’s first blockbuster theatrical melody from “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” (the success, touring the country for a sold-out year South African national anthem at a time when with who would later become South Africans could not sing their own Mr. Masekela’s wife. He later formed a band anthem under apartheid). The songs on this with Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah tour symbolize kindness, respect, unity, and, Ibrahim) called , which be - ultimately, forgiveness. came the first African jazz group to record an LP and perform to record-breaking audiences Legendary South in Johannesburg and in late 1959 African trumpeter and early 1960. But life in South Africa was is becoming unbearable under the strain of an innovator in the Apartheid oppression. After the 1960 and jazz , where 69 peacefully genres and continues protesting Africans were brutally gunned to tour the world as a down, the South African government banned performer, com - gatherings of ten or more people. Mr. Masekela poser, producer, and escaped South Africa with the help of Father activist. This iconic artist is best known for his Huddleston, who enlisted friends like Yehudi Grammy Award-nominated hit single “Grazing Menuhin and , both of whom in the Grass,” which sold over four million helping get him admitted into London’s

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Guildhall School of Music. Later on, with the “to get well, to heal”) and with a highly ac - assistance of Miriam Makeba and Harry claimed performance with the London Belafonte, Mr. Masekela was accepted into the Symphony. In 2010, he created Songs of Manhattan School of Music in New York. His Migration , a theatrical tribute to the great first night in New York found him in several songs of migrants across the African continent jazz clubs, hearing Thelonious Monk and that was staged at the Market Theatre in Dizzy Gillespie in one, Charlie Mingus and Johannesburg and featured Mr. Masekela as Max Roach at a second, and John Coltrane at a the Lead Storyteller. The piece was yet another third. It was clear that New York would be the facet of his continued efforts to protect and perfect place to pursue his jazz aspirations nurture South Africa’s musical and cultural while studying classical trumpet at school dur - heritage, which was nearly snuffed out during ing the day. the Apartheid era. It made its U.S. début at the Mr. Masekela was deeply affected by his Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in life experiences and consequently made October 2012. music that reflected his experiences in the In April 2010, he received the Order of harsh po litical climate of South Africa during Ikhamanga from South African President the 1950s and 1960s. Mr. Masekela’s music Jacob Zuma, his nation’s highest civilian portrays the struggles and joys of living in honor. When South Africa hosted the 2010 South Africa, and voices protest against slav - World Cup, Mr. Masekela performed at the ery and dis crimination. opening ceremony concert, broadcast world - Mr. Masekela has collaborated with numer - wide for millions of people, and played his in - ous artists in the United States, Africa, and fectious and celebratory “Grazing in the Europe, including Miriam Makeba, Dizzy Grass.” As part of ESPN’s coverage of the Gillespie, , , Fela World Cup, Mr. Masekela and his son Sal Kuti (in ), and Franco (in the Congo). Masekela (an ESPN Sportscaster) hosted a se - Renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey chose a ries of video documentaries entitled Umlando: piece by Mr. Masekela to create a work for his Through My Father’s Eyes . In February 2011, world-famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Mr. Masekela joined the rock band U2 on Theater. Mr. Masekela also co-created the stage in Johannesburg to a crowd of almost Broadway smash musical Sarafina , which in - 100,000, the biggest concert the band has ever troduced the sounds and passion of South played. February 2012 brought the release of African music to theater audiences worldwide. Mr. Masekela’s Jabulani on the Listen 2 Africa Mr. Masekela’s work as an activist raised in - Series record label. From the Zulu word ternational awareness of the South African meaning “rejoice,” Jabulani recalls several gen - government’s restrictive Apartheid policies. In erations of music from wedding ceremonies the 1980s Mr. Masekela’s hit song, “Bring Him in South Africa. Back Home,” became an anthem for the Free Twenty-five years after Mr. Masekela first Nelson Mandela movement. In the 1990s, collaborated with Mr. Simon on the Graceland Mr. Masekela finally returned home to South album and tour, the two icons reunited on a Africa and renewed the musical ties to his Hyde Park Stage in July 2012. The anniversary homeland and the sounds and rhythms of celebration included the original Graceland Central and West Africa, in particular the band, as well as style. In 2004, he released his auto - and star Jimmy Cliff. biography, : The Musical Journey The following year saw the launch of of Hugh Masekela , a stunning memoir that is Mr. Masekela’s own record label, House of both heartbreaking and hilarious. Hugh Masekela. The first recording on this In 2009, Mr. Masekela celebrated his 70th label is a four-CD box set Friends , which fea - birthday by releasing the CD Phola (meaning tures Mr. Masekela and American pianist

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Larry Willis performing American song and records—, , the classic jazz standards. Also released in 2013 Commodores—and whatever South African was Playing@work, featuring his longtime and African recordings they could find— band: bassist Fana Zulu, keyboardist Randal , Mahlatini Queens, Miriam Skippers, Cameron Ward on guitar, and Makeba, Dark City Sisters, . Young drummer Lee-Roy Sauls. Mr. Mahlasela and his neighborhood friends Celebrating 50 years in the music industry formed a little band and started making music and his 75th birthday, Mr. Masekela returned of their own, inspired by the recordings to the United States in March 2014 for a ten- they heard wafting out of the shebeen . city tour dedicated to the memory of Nelson Mr. Mahlasela built his first guitar from fishing Mandela. Jazz at Lincoln Center celebrated his line and a cooking-oil can and taught himself 75th birthday with three nights of music from how to play. In 1976, Mr. Mahlasela’s political Friends , and he closed the tour on his actual education began as he witnessed the devas - birthday with at the Rose Theater. tating massacre of more than 200 black South In the finale, Mr. Masekela performed “(Bring Africans in the Uprising. He re - Back) Nelson Mandela,” which became the sponded through his music, inspiring other anthem in South Africa’s liberation struggle. musicians and listeners around him. For the 2014–2015 season, Mr. Masekela Mr. Mahlasela began to write songs of jus - pairs up with another pioneering South tice, freedom, revolution, love, peace, and life. African freedom fighter and musical icon, He joined a poetry group, the Ancestors of Vusi Mahlasela, in a program called @> Years Africa, and also joined the Congress of South of Freedom . Celebrating the anniversary of the African Writers, a group of like-minded end of Apartheid, Mr. Masekela and artists and writers, including Nobel Laureate Mr. Mahlasela opened the South Africa Nadine Gordimer, who paid for Festival at Carnegie Hall in New York. Mr. Mahlasela’s first guitar lessons. At this Articulate and brilliantly musical in any point, his political activism truly began. For number of genres, Mr. Masekela has been a the “crime” of writing songs of freedom and defining force in world music, the preserva - human dignity, Mr. Mahlasela was held in tion of South Africa’s musical heritage, the solitary confinement; he was harassed by the safety and well-being of its poorest citizens, as police repeatedly. Many of his friends fled the well as the struggle for freedom and human country. Through this struggle, his songwrit - rights, both in Africa and around the world. ing became not only prolific but also healing for himself and for his listeners. And as Vusi Mahlasela Ms. Gordimer so vividly put it, “Mr. Mahlasela grew up in the sings as a bird does, in total re sponse to Mamelodi town - being alive.” He simply became known as n o

ship, just outside t “The Voice.” g n i r

of , r At the fall of Apartheid, Mr. Mahlasela was a F

South Africa, n signed to Shifty/BMG records and finally o r a

where he still re - A recorded his first album, a collection of songs sides. As Mr. Mahlasela tells it, he grew up a he had been writing his whole life. On the title happy kid and was blind to the injustices in his track, “When You Come Back,” he sings to his country. His grandmother operated a shebeen friends and the political exiles who had left (pub) behind their home. Due to the cultural the country, telling them that “we will ring the boycott inflicted by Apartheid, black bells and beat the drums when you come South African music was hard to come by back,” and calls for humanity, asking that we and was banned from being played on the “give something to the world and not just take radio, so people in the pub played American from it.”

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This song and its altruistic message rang Mr. Mahlasela was humbled this spring loud in cars, at parties, and in the homes of to receive an honorary doctorate degree from both blacks and whites. It truly became an an - the prestigious in them. In 1994, Mr. Mahlasela was proud and Grahamstown, South Africa; a few weeks later, very humbled to perform this song at Nelson on Freedom Day, South Africa’s President Mandela’s presidential inauguration. “The Jacob Zuma awarded Mr. Mahlasela with the Voice” was soon heard all over the world. Since National Order of Ikhamanga, recognizing the release of that first album, Mr. Mahlasela him for “drawing attention to the injustices has traveled the globe sharing his songs of that isolated South Africa from the global truth and hope, and sharing his country’s past community during the Apartheid years.” and promise for a better future. Americans first This past year, the South African Music caught a glimpse of him in the 2002 docu - Awards chose to honor Mr. Mahlasela with a mentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Lifetime Achievement award to recognize his Harmony that chronicles the strength of music accomplishments both at home and abroad. during the struggle against Apartheid. Shortly The honor made the troubadour take a look after the film’s début, fellow South African back and realize that in what felt like a blink of Dave Matthews signed Mr. Mahlasela to his the eye, it had been 20 years since the release label, ATO Records, and released The Voice , a of “When You Come Back.” In celebration, he collection of songs from Mr. Mahlasela’s South got the band together, put on a big show at the African releases. Guiding Star and 2011’s Say Lyric Theatre in Johannesburg, and recorded Africa , produced by Taj Mahal, soon followed. it. The result, Sing to the People , on ATO His albums have received wide critical acclaim, Records, includes songs from throughout the and celebrated musicians have taken note of first 20 years of his career. The album contains his powerful voice and message. As the Los joyful performances and the visceral sounds Angeles Times put it, Mr. Mahlasela is a “rare of an audience that is hanging on every note and mesmerizing musical mind…with a voice and already knows every lyric by heart. It that seems to have few limits.” is toe-tapping and heart-thumping. It is Mr. Mahlasela has shared the stage with the Mr. Mahlasela singing to the people. , , , Paul Tour Production & Road Management Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Rapelang Eugene Leeuw Masekela, , Béla Fleck, Ray LaMontagne, Amos Lee, and many others. He North American Agency for Hugh Masekela has also performed at two TED conferences, Opus 3 Artists the Skoll World Forum, the Elders’ annual 470 Park Avenue South meeting, Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, New York, New York 10016 Mandela Day, and many more. But perhaps his www.opus3artists.com biggest gig was in 2010, when he helped ring in the World Cup in South Africa, at Orlando North American Agency for Vusi Mahlasela International Music Network Stadium in Soweto; “When You Come Back” 278 Main Street also served as the theme song for ITV’s World Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930 Cup coverage in the United Kingdom. www.imnworld.com

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