Hugh Masekela
4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018
Hugh Masekela was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and singer regarded as a founding figure of modern South African jazz. He left South Africa in 1960 and spent three decades abroad, reaching number one on the United States singles chart with Grazing in the Grass in 1968 and recording the anti-apartheid song Bring Him Back Home in 1987. He returned to South Africa in 1990.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Hugh Masekela.
- Ada Yonath (1939–2026) Overlapped 79 years →
- Adonis (1930–present) Overlapped 79 years →
- Ali Khamenei (1939–2026) Overlapped 79 years →
- Alice Munro (1931–2024) Overlapped 79 years →
- Amos Oz (1939–2018) Overlapped 79 years →
- Arvo Pärt (1935–present) Overlapped 79 years →
Life events
He was born in a township in the eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe was given his first trumpet with the help of the chaplain Trevor Huddleston at St Peter's Secondary School.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe group recorded one of the first jazz albums made by Black South African musicians.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe travelled to London and then to New York, where he studied at the Manhattan School of Music.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe marriage to the South African singer ended in divorce two years later.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe instrumental single topped the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over four million copies.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe song calling for Nelson Mandela's release became an anthem of the anti-apartheid movement.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe came home after thirty years abroad as apartheid restrictions were lifted.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe died of prostate cancer at the age of 78.
Source: en.wikipedia.org