Hugh Masekela

Hugh Masekela was a South African trumpeter, flugelhorn player, composer and bandleader whose music brought jazz into conversation with the sounds and political history of his homeland. Born in Witbank in 1939, he played in the musical King Kong and the Jazz Epistles before leaving South Africa in 1960 for three decades of exile.

He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and developed an international career that included the 1968 American number-one single Grazing in the Grass and collaborations with Miriam Makeba, Fela Kuti and Paul Simon. His music also became a voice against apartheid. He returned to South Africa in 1990 and later established a foundation devoted to African heritage. He died in 2018.