I don't think any musician ever thinks about making a statement. I think everybody goes into music loving it - Hugh Masekela (South African Trumpeteer)
Musician, Hugh Masekela, was known as the father of South African Jazz
Acknowledged mostly as a world-renowned trumpeter, bandleader, and composer, he was also a flugelhornist, singer and defiant activist against apartheid. As a child, he sang and played piano at his grandmother's illegal bar and at 14 was gifted with a trumpet from Father Trevor Huddleston, an equal rights activist in South Africa. Soon after, the Huddleston Jazz Band was formed. His signature Afro-Jazz style began forming during this time.
His fierce opposition to apartheid resulted in being exiled from his native South Africa for 30 years returning under the leadership of Nelson Mandela.
He was mentored by Dizzie Gillespie and Louis Armstrong during his time in the states who encouraged him to stay true to his South African inspiration; but his hits in the US, 'Up, Up and Away' (1967) and the number one 'Grazing in the Grass' (1968, which sold 4 million copies) have American pop undertones. He was married for a time to Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba, also a singer, songwriter and fierce apartheid activist.
Google honored him on his birthday last week
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