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  New York (New York), USA - South African Jazz Legend
Hugh
Masekela will perform at SOBs on Tuesday, April 25
at 8pm & 10:30pm.
Tickets are $25/advance & $30/door.
SOBs is located at
204 Varick Street,
NY, NY.
212-243-4940.
Hugh
Masekela was born near Johannesburg in 1939. He was originally introduced
to the trumpet by anti-apartheid activist Father Trevor Huddleston. After going
into exile in 1961, Harry Belafonte helped him to settle in the US as a student
and in 1968 he recorded the number one hit "Grazing in the Grass." By the
beginning of the 1970’s he had attained international fame, selling out all of
America’s festivals, auditoriums and top nightclubs. Heeding the call of his
African roots, he moved to Guinea, then Liberia and Ghana after recording the
historical “ Home is where Music is” with Dudu Pokwana.
After a pilgrimage to Zaire in 1973, he met
Fela
Kuti in Nigeria and again with
Stewart Levine, he met Hedzoleh Soundz a grassroots Ghanaian band Fela
introduced them to. For the next five years they produced a string of ground
breaking records, which included international favorites such as “The
Marketplace”, “Ashiko”. “The Boy’z Doin It”, “Vasco Da Gama”, “African Secret
Society” and the evergreen “Stimela”. After a tour and two duet albums with Herp
Albert, Hugh and Miriam Makeba played a Christmas Day
concert in Lesotho in 1980 where 75 000 people came to see them after they had
been away for 20 years from the region.
In 1981,
Hugh
Masekela moved to Botswana where he
started the Botswana international School of Music with Dr. Khabi Mngona. His
record label, Jive Records, helped him to set up a mobile studio in Gaborone
where Stewart produced “Techno Bush” from which came the hit single “Don’t Go
Lose it Baby” in 1986, he unexpectedly had to leave with his band Kalahari for
England, his wife Lindi Phahle along with 14 people in the pretext of raiding
“communist terrorist camps” manned by South African Anti-Apartheid activists.
While in England,
Hugh
Masekela conceived the Broadway musical “Sarafina” with Mbongeni
Ngema. In 1987 he recorded “Bring Him Back Home" which became the anthem for
Nelson Mandela's world tour after his release from prison. After touring Paul
Simon on the “Graceland” tour with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Miriam Makeba,
Masekela returned home following the un-banning of political parties and the
release of Mandela.
In 2005 Masekela released his newest record,
Revival on Head's Up Records.
For more information go to: www.SOBs.com.
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