RIP Hugh Masekela

The great South African trumpeter and anti-apartheid activist is gone at 78. More cowbell, Hugh.

Aw man - great player.

Very sad. I’ve been seeing Facebook posts about/tributes to him all day from folks in the DC jazz community. :frowning:

He’ll be grazing the great grass in the sky. RIP Hugh.

Damn.
I heard him in WLUW headed to lunch and thought I hadn’t heard him recently.

I saw him perform waaaay back in 1993 or 1994. I was never really a follower of his music, but that concert is a fond memory.

Hugh played the trumpet on the Byrds “Do you wanna be a rock and roll star?” Come to think of it what a different time it was that a trumpet was the choice for a song with that title.

Damn, I’ll miss ya, sir. “Grazing in the Grass” is one of the all-time great instrumental tracks.

One of the highlights of our Australian vacation several years back was seeing him perform in the Sydney Opera House. Great show.

This is my favourite Bra Hugh song, it has personal resonance, I’ve taken the same train to work on the gold mines even if I was far better off than the miners he describes.

My second favourite is Strawberries!, a riff off of Miriam Makeba’s wonderful version of Love Tastes Like Strawberries (another version with Bra Hugh’s trumpet work here)

It’s not a lie to say the nation is in mourning.

He was 78, not that old at all. RIP.

That’s the one I remember so vividly from the time I saw him.

i don’t know anything by him other than Grazing in the Grass–but man, that song is indelibly connected to my memory of an IBM company picnic in the summer of '68. Nothing of consequence happened other than hearing the song a couple of times that day–just one of those fond, hazy memories of a carefree day when the summer seemed like it would go on forever.