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He’s just got back from Ghana where he performed at the inauguration of the new president Nana Akufo-Addo… an old friend
I ask Bra Hugh if he’s on Twitter. He replies: “No, but I’m on Whatsapp.” I’m defeated.
He notices my disappointment and we burst out in laughter…
“The last time I was in Uganda, I had a great time and wondered why I never came back. Was it about something I said?”
“The blessing with the arts is that you can do it forever until you drop dead. That’s the blessing. And I’m 74, and I feel that I’m just beginning. So I think I’m very fortunate to have been, like, bedeviled by music.”
“Like Miles Davis, Miriam Makeba and Louis Armstrong who disappeared but never died, Brenda’s music will always be in our lives and she left a big void in this world,” Masekela says.
Certain birds make certain sounds. In my silly time in the garden I try to put lyrics to that sound, or put words to them, because its music, you know.
The Boston Globe Siddhartha Mitter He turned 74 a few days ago, and Hugh Masekela — the South African trumpeter, flugelhorn player, singer, jazz pioneer, folk music reviver, cultural activist, master entertainer, and all-around irrepressible spirit — is fairly bursting with energy. At the helm of his working band of the last four years, a … Read more
He credits his endless fascination with keeping his music fresh. “If music was the devil, I would need an exorcist. That’s how obsessed and possessed I am with it, and I have always been.”
Hugh Masekela at WOMADelaide – Review, Interview and Blog Excerpts The Guardian Caspar Llewellyn Smith Review It was a fine way to celebrate a 21st birthday: blistering temperatures, beautiful surroundings and plenty to learn from your elders. Some of the leading perfomers at WOMADelaide in Adelaide’s Botanic Park were more than a match for their … Read more
Jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela honors his homeland in ‘Songs of Migration’ Washington Post Erin Williams The journey of migrant workers to Johannesburg in Africa at the end of the 19th century is being brought to life through music by renowned trumpeter Hugh Masekela. The 73-year-old gained fame in the 1960s with his jazz renditions of … Read more
Be passionate, study your craft and you’ll get somewhere and if you’re not in it for the glamour, I think you’ll go very far.
