Tag: Hugh Masekela

Title: Hugh Masekela – Liberation: The Best Of Hugh Masekela (1988) [Reissue 2001]
Genre: Afrobeat, Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD edition of compilation for the African artist who’s vibrant trumpet & flugelhorn solos have been featured in pop, R&B, disco, Afropop & jazz contexts…
Hugh Masekela recorded for the BMG subsidiary Jive in the late ’80s and early ’90s. During this time, he had a raised profile because of his appearance on Paul Simon’s Graceland tour, but he didn’t really seize that opportunity to develop his music further. Instead, he continued to refine his trademark sound, often in quite entertaining ways. Collected Hugh Masekela gathers some highlights from this period. Although it is aimed at neophytes, they’d be better off purchasing this after his classic ’60s recordings. Once they do so, however, they’ll be pleased by this set, which illustrates that Masekela continued to make enjoyable music in the ’80s and ’90s. Collectors and hardcore fans will prefer the actual albums, but this is useful for anyone that is already familiar with Masekela’s music and just wants to dig a little deeper.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Title: Hugh Masekela – Hope (1994) [Analogue Productions 2008]
Genre: Fusion, African
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Now happily resettled in South Africa, Masekela assembled a seven-piece group there and recorded an informal guided tour of his life and repertoire live in Washington D.C.’s Blues Alley. The songs stretch over a period of nearly five decades and several countries and composers – from an incantatory Alexandria township tune, “Languta,” which he learned in 1947, to a fairly ordinary piece written by keyboardist Themba Mkhize in 1993, “Until When.” “Abangoma” starts the CD out on the right track, hearkening back to the early fusion of African music and jazz that Masekela was playing back in 1966. “Mandela (Bring Him Back Home)” may have lost some of its political raison d’etre by 1993, but it remains a good tune, and the band plays it with enthusiasm. Yet Masekela’s biggest hit, “Grazing in the Grass,” sounds a bit tired in this live rendition. There are two songs by the prolific South African composer Caiphus Semenya, “Nomali” and the driving “Ha Le Se,” and the late Nigerian idol Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is represented by “Lady.” Clearly the resolution of the political struggle in South Africa had mellowed Masekela; he sounds happier, perhaps less fiery, certainly more polished and refined on the trumpet and flugelhorn than when he started out. But when you hear his bitter narration on “Stimela,” describing the life of formerly conscripted coal miners, you suspect that not all of the old wounds have healed.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)