Life & Work

Masekela: Trumpeting for an Africa without borders

masekela

Hugh Masekela. PHOTO | COURTESY

The image on the sleeve of the latest album by Hugh Masekela is that of a map of Africa from 1590, long before boundaries were drawn up. The message is deliberate: Africans should not allow artificial boundaries to create barriers in their minds.

No Borders, the first album in five years by the South African musical icon, is arguably one of the most expressive set of songs that he has recorded in the recent past.

The 15 songs on the album transcend a wide scope of musical styles: Township jazz, House music, Afro beat, rap, there’s even some rumba, but the common thread through the different sounds on the album is the signature trumpet and flugelhorn by the man affectionately known as Bra Hugh.

Heaven in you Hugh featuring J Something from the South African group Micasa has a feel-good vibe with beautiful lyrics and wonderful combination of the horns and the guitar.

Raps along

It was written when the two musicians travelled to the south coast of South Africa as part a Mercedes Benz campaign where their task was to create a song that celebrates the beauty of the South African landscape and its people.

Masekela not only plays the trumpet but he also raps along with South African hip hop artist, Dice Makgothi on a stripped down version of his classic song Don’t go lose it baby. Named after the Yoruba deity of storms, Shango, is inspired by his old friend, the great Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti.

Masekela reminisces about his travels to Nigeria in the 1970s and performing with Fela who used to tease him that he would never be able to play Afrobeat.

He took up the challenge with this song, which he first recorded in 1998 and has reworked this time with some assistance from the Nigerian guitarist Kunle Ayo.

No Borders features an impressive list of guest appearances. It doesn’t come much bigger than the collaboration with Zimbabwean Oliver Mtukudzi in the song Tapera that talks about the devastating effects of HIV/Aids in Zimbabwe.

Masekela uses this album to celebrate his historic Pan Africanist credentials. While living in exile in the US in 1972, Masekela took a pilgrimage across Africa, stopping in Guinea where Miriam Makeba was being hosted by President Sekou Toure.

His next destination was Kinshasa, in what was then Zaire, where he lived for about 10 months and he made music with the two giants of rumba Franco and Tabu Ley.

This album harks back to his period in the Central African nation with a rumba-influenced song called Congo Women featuring South African artist Kabomo Vilakazi and hot new Congolese star Tresor Riziki.

The eight-minute song comes complete with the trademark rumba climax, known in the Congolese music as sebene.

It was after this stay in Congo that Masekela relocated to Nigeria and spent a whole month playing with Fela’s Africa 70 band. What followed was a West African tour whose first stop was in Accra, Ghana where he met Hedzoleh Sounds. Masekela played with the band for three months at the famous Napoleon Club in Accra.

Together they recorded two albums, Introducing the Hedzoleh Soundz in 1973 and I am not afraid in 1974.
More than 40 years later, Masekela has recorded a new version of one of the songs on the latter album Been Such A long Time Gone on his No Borders.

It is a chance to express the feeling of coming back to Africa from exile in US, yet he was still unable to get back to South Africa.

The instrumental piece, Makeba, featuring the great Themba Mokoena on guitar, is a tribute to the great Miriam Makeba, to whom Masekela was married for two years in the 1960s.

Shuffle and bow is an uncompromising protest song, inspired by the pain and anguish of slavery, with a heavy percussion and blues guitar played by Kunle Ayo. He sings: “I have been working in your house for 500 years, you never gave an Aboriginal a chance.”

KwaZulu features Themba Mokoena playing a sweet guitar riff while In an Age is the first song that he has recorded with his son, the American TV presenter, Sal Masekela aka Alekesam (Masekela spelled backwards).

Tonight, tonight, tonight featuring the high notes of Khanyo Maphumulo best remembered for her role as the young schoolgirl singing the Lord’s Prayer in the 1992 film Sarafina.

Hectic touring

This is Masekela’s 44th album in a career spanning more than 60 years. He is 77 but still maintains a hectic touring schedule around the world. If you watched him perform in Nairobi at the Safaricom International Jazz Festival in August 2016 then you will have seen his tremendous energy on stage.

This album is steeped in the lifetime of experiences from one of Africa’s most enduring artists, presented in a diversity of styles along with a host of young musical talent.

South African jazz maestro’s latest album celebrates his Pan-Africanist credentials and continent’s rich music.