South African Top Jazz Musician Hugh Masekela Dies

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Hugh Masekela

South African jazz musician and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Masekela dies at 78.

The south African Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa has confirmed saying ”A baobab tree has fallen, the nation has lost a one of a kind musician with the passing of Jazz legend bra Hugh Masekela. We can safely say bra Hugh was one of the great architects of Afro-Jazz and he uplifted the soul of our nation through his timeless music.”

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Masekela opened up about his battle with cancer. In a statement issued last year (2017 October), the legendary artiste said,” I have been in treatment for prostate cancer since 2008 when doctors discovered a small “speck” on my bladder. The treatment seemed to be successful, but in March 2016 I had to undergo surgery as the cancer had spread.”

”In April 2017, while in Morocco I fell and sprained my shoulder. I began to feel an imbalance when I was walking and my left eye was troubling me. Another tumour was discovered and subsequently, in September 2017, I had emergency treatment, and the tumour was neutralised,” Hugh revealed.

Masekela was born on 4 April1939 in Witbank. As a child, he began playing the piano, but a movie about jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, Young Man with a Horn, inspired him to shift his musical allegiances.

Masekela married Miriam Makeba in 1964, but the couple divorced in 1966.

Masekela had success in the United States with a pop-jazz tune, “Up, Up and Away”, in 1967.

Masekela is survived by his wife, Elinam Cofie, whom he married in 1999 and for whom he penned the song “Ghana”, his daughter, Pula Twala, and his son, Selema “Sal” Masekela, from his relationship with Haitian Jessie Marie Lapierre.

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