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Concert Pick
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Plain Dealer, Concert Pick >>
-by Jesse Tinsley, Plain Dealer Reporter
South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela returns to Cleveland on Tuesday energized by the release of a two disc CD, "Live at the Market Theatre."
"I come from a culture where music is the literature of our lives," Masekela said in a recent phone interview. "Music was everywhere. I don't think that as South Africans we could have imagined life without music."
And if Masekela lives up to his perfonnance before a soldout crowd two years ago at Nighttown, music lovers can expect an electrifying evening of Afrobeat, jazz fusion and poetic laments.
The 68-year-old Masekela, exiled for nearly 30 years from his homeland, is a tireless singer and trumpet player who shows little signs of slowing the pace.
But the release of 'Live at the Market Theatre" represents a turning point for Masekela, whose works have long been accented by protest and poetic liberation music stemming from South Africa's apartheid years.
The double CD includes live performances of his old songs, including the 1968 hit "Grazing in the Grass" and "Mandela," the freedom fighter's call for the release of Nelson Mandela.
"It [the double album] is a good-bye for me -- the end of an era in my doing the standards," Masekela said.
A new studio CD, expected to be released this year, will not only open a new door, it will mark a change in style.
"It's a turnaround nobody is expecting," he said. "I'm still playing and singing, but it's much more sparse and calm -- but intense."
He has a new eight-member group, with which he performed during the live recording as part of a monthlong series of shows to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Market Theatre. The Market was home to liberation and protest-style performances during the heighth of apartheid oppression.
"It was a celebration of resilience and survival, and a chance for me to show off this band that I've been with for a few years," he said. "Finally, I've got the perfect membership. There is great synergy."
Musicians, writers, playwrights and other artists in South Africa are "all at the beginning of this new era of music and writing and theater that people are beginning to formulate after 12 or 13 years of freedom."
Masekela, bom in 1939 in Johannesburg, began singing and playing music at age 3. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London and later at the Manhattan School of Music.
Masekela went on to record dozens of albums and perform worldwide. He has shared stages with jazz greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald, and pop music icons such as Santana and Paul Simon.
Masekela used music as a force of unity and as an artistic response to apartheid.
"There was always music in the air, and it's no surprise why it played such an important role in our freedom," he said.
In 1961, Masekela fled his country and lived in exile in other African nations, Britain and the United States for almost 30 years.
He returned home in 1990 after Nelson Mandela was freed and the ban on political activity was lifted.
While people are celebrating freedom, Masekela said South Africa still has a long way to go.
"Our freedom is not as glamorous as it seems," he said. "It's freedom from harassment, repression. But in terms of material realities, it's a far cry from the picture that is painted internationally." 07/23/07
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