Hugh Masekela
b. April 4, 1939 d. January 23, 2018
Global Jazz Ambassador
Musician Hugh Masekela was born in South Africa on April 4, 1939 to parents Thomas and Pauline Masekela. Hugh would be the first of his parents's four children. On 23 January, 2018 Masekela died after a battle with prostate cancer. He is survived by children Pula Twala and Sal Masekela sister Barbara Masekela.
Hugh Masekela began playing the trumpet when he was 14.
In 1960, at the age of 21 he left South Africa following the political unrest surrounding the Sharpeville Massacre. He took his talents to London where he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He left London to attend the Manhattan School of Music.
He won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Pop Performance – Instrumental for his song 'sGrazin's in the Grass's in 1968.
In 2010, the President of South Africa awarded Masekela The Order of Ikhamanga.
"My biggest obsession is to show Africans and the world who the people of Africa really are." - Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela (2009)
H.L.I.T.