South African Jazz Music Icon, Bra Hugh Masekela has passed away aged, 78 years.
Jazz Music Legend, Bra Hugh was born in KwaGuqa township in Witbank and began singing and playing the piano as a child.
After seeing the film Young Man with a Horn when he was 14, Masekela began playing the trumpet. His first trumpet was given to him by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, an anti-apartheid chaplain at St. Peter’s Secondary School.
He soon mastered the instrument and by 1956 joined Alfred Herbet’s African Jazz Revue. Bra Hugh’s music was inspired by the turmoil that South Africa went through during apartheid and he said it was used as a weapon to spread political change.
According to a statement by the family, Masekela died After a protracted and courageous battle with prostate cancer. He passed peacefully in Johannesburg, South Africa surrounded by his family.
Masekela was a South African trumpeter, composer and singer. He played flugelhorn and cornet to a remarkable extent when he was alive. He is considered the “father of South African jazz”.
Masekela was known for his exceptional works about jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as “Soweto Blues” and “Bring Him Back Home”.
He is the father of American television host Sal Masekela. Battle With Prostate Cancer
Hugh’s battled with prostate cancer. The illness has been public knowledge for a long time. The musician’s team released a statement in October, 2017, saying he had been battling prostate cancer since 2008.
The statement explained that the jazz veteran underwent eye surgery in March 2016, after the cancer spread, and had to go into theatre again in September 2016 as another tumor was discovered.
In December. Masekela’s manager, Andrew Josh Georgiou told local media house, Tshisa LIVE, that he was fighting the disease with everything he had.