# RIP Hugh Masekela **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297 "2018-01-23T15:10:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/1 "2018-01-23T15:10:12Z")
The great South African [trumpeter](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/hugh-masekela-dies.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news) and anti-apartheid activist is gone at 78. [More cowbell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXZF60EPdM), Hugh. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/2 "2018-01-23T15:24:51Z")
Aw man - great player. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/3 "2018-01-23T20:25:56Z")
Very sad. I’ve been seeing Facebook posts about/tributes to him all day from folks in the DC jazz community. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/4 "2018-01-23T20:30:55Z")
He’ll be grazing the great grass in the sky. RIP Hugh. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/5 "2018-01-23T22:02:08Z")
Damn. I heard him in WLUW headed to lunch and thought I hadn’t heard him recently. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/6 "2018-01-23T22:27:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/7 "2018-01-23T23:09:41Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/8 "2018-01-24T04:48:21Z")
Damn, I’ll miss ya, sir. “Grazing in the Grass” is one of the all-time great instrumental tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/9 "2018-01-24T05:14:00Z")
One of the highlights of our Australian vacation several years back was seeing him perform in the Sydney Opera House. Great show. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/10 "2018-01-24T08:47:12Z")
[This is my favourite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y09bhF_KcKI) 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!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPUDTOi_UNs), a riff off of Miriam Makeba’s wonderful version of [Love Tastes Like Strawberries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE1XzhQ_Bf0) (another version [with Bra Hugh’s trumpet work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rH7TAhyZwg) here) It’s not a lie to say the nation is in mourning. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/11 "2018-01-24T15:31:33Z")
He was 78, not that old at all. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/12 "2018-01-24T15:46:34Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > [This is my favourite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y09bhF_KcKI) 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. That’s the one I remember so vividly from the time I saw him. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-hugh-masekela/807297/13 "2018-01-24T16:06:08Z")
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.