Everybody always talks about the connection between jazz music and Africa. How if you listen to tribal music you can hear in the drums the roots of what we now call jazz. In fact many modern jazz artists have "gone back to Africa" so to speak, and begun to make use of tribal instruments as part of their percussion sections.
But the flow goes both ways and African musicians have heard the music that's undergone a renaissance and a metamorphoses and have in turn incorporated it into the music they perform and come up with their own versions of jazz (as well as blues and popular music). One of the first to rise to prominence was Hugh Masekela from South Africa.
As a young man he came under the tutelage of some of the greats of American jazz and popular music. Louis Armstrong gave him a trumpet, Harry Belafonte arranged for him to come to New York City to study music, and Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis took him under their wings to teach him the intricacies of Jazz. Living the life of an exile from his homeland because of apartheid, Hugh had more opportunities than most of his contemporaries to be exposed to North American jazz and other Western pop influences.
At the same time he was also providing inspiration to North American pop artists like Paul Simon. Graceland, which featured Hugh, was one of the first popular attempts at tracing the path that African music had blazed across the landscape of American pop music. It also served to bring the name Hugh Masekela further into the general public's awareness and added to his reputation as an ambassador for African culture and music.
Seventeen years ago Masekela was able to return to his homeland and in that time has not only continued his musical career but has also set out to develop a pan African entertainment and recording network to replace the mostly foreign- owned system that is currently in place. It was only fitting therefore that The Market Theatre in South Africa, where Hugh's musical Sarafina received its first performance, and home to African culture even during the worst days of apartheid, had him close out their month long 30th anniversary celebrations with two evenings of concerts.
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