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| Movie for Masekela by Diane Coetzer International jazz giant Hugh Masekela travels the world, playing London, New York, Paris and more in any given year. But he has such fond memories of his childhood in Emalahleni, which was called Witbank at the time, that he's planning a movie about those years. "I want the film to depict how Witbank was back in those days. There is so much about the place that defines who I am, even today, " he says. The movie is very much in the planning phase, but Hugh's ideas are substantial. "I don't want to be involved in films that are small, or where we Africans lose, " he says. "There are very few films that depict happiness in Africa, but that is what I want my film to convey. I have had a very colourful life and I want the film to convey the splendour of those early days." Raised by gran His maternal grandmother in Witbank, Mpumalanga, raised him and his sister, Barbara, who is South Africa's ambassador to the United States. It was a childhood defined by both his granny's strict religious beliefs and the freewheeling life on township streets. He first encountered the joys of music as it pulsed out of shebeens and houses in the townships. Now, more than 50 years after he first began playing as part of the Huddleston Jazz Band, he is known fondly as "Bra Hugh" the international jazz giant. The most potent, force in Hugh's life is music. Since 1953, when he saw the film Young Man with a Horn while he was a schoolboy at Saint Peter's missionary school and resolved to become a trumpet player, music has been his constant companion. "I was always focused on music and music was focused into me, and I couldn't get away from it, " Hugh says. But he "didn't expect to get the kind of attention that I finally got" as a musician. African heritage played a role "I was hoping to be a really respected jazz sideman. But when I got to the [United] States everyone said, 'Why do you want to play jazz when there are so many of us here already doing that?' "So I had to search deep into my roots while kicking myself for having focused so much on being a jazzman. "Fortunately, Miriam Makeba was a sangoma's child and her mother was a helluva singer, who sang songs from all over southern Africa. They taught me the songs that enabled me to stand out as an artist in America." Encouraged by Harry Belafonte not to return to South Africa after Nelson Mandela had been jailed for life, Hugh stayed in the US and earned a name for himself not as a sideman, but as a solo artist capable of delivering hits like Grazing in the Grass, a number one hit in 1968. He came home after Mandela's release, and has recently broadened his creative pursuits. He is currently researching his family, including his Scottish family on his grandfather's side. He also plans to write a novel and reclaim the "pageantry and majesty" of South Africa's African heritage. "My biggest fear is that my granddaughter, when asked about her history, will say, 'We used to be Africans.'" write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |