{"id":14787,"date":"2021-02-01T17:36:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T16:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/?post_type=focus&p=14787"},"modified":"2021-02-01T18:35:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T17:35:01","slug":"tuku-and-bra-hugh-a-friendship-that-will-never-be-forgotten","status":"publish","type":"focus","link":"https:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/en\/focus\/tuku-and-bra-hugh-a-friendship-that-will-never-be-forgotten\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuku and Bra Hugh: A friendship that will never be forgotten"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

This article was originally written for Music In Africa<\/a><\/strong>. #AuxSons has translated it into French as part of a media partnership agreement.<\/em><\/p>\n

On January the 23rd, Africa remembered arguably two of the continent\u2019s greatest musicians, Hugh \u2018Bra Hugh\u2019 Masekela and Oliver \u2018Tuku\u2019 Mtukudzi, who died a year apart on 23 January 2018 and 2019, respectively. Tuku was accorded national hero status, making him the first musician to receive recognition from the Zimbabwean government. As for Masekela, his family built a pavilion in his memory at Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg, where he is buried.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jazz giant Hugh Masekela (4 April 1939 - 23 January 2018) was a well known flugelhornist, trumpeter, composer, singer and a defiant political voice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was a product of South Africa\u2019s golden age of jazz and was a member of the legendary group, The Jazz Epistles, with Kippie Moeketsi, Abdullah Ibrahim and Jonas Gwangwa, as well as the touring musical \u2018King Kong\u2019 in the late 1950s. Exiled to the US<\/span> in the 1960, he helped bring Africa\u2019s voice to the west. In the early 60s he studied in London and New York, soon releasing albums such as \u2018Trumpet Africaine\u2019 (1963) and \u2018Grrr\u2019 (1966). He was married briefly to Miriam Makeba and had hits in the US<\/span> with the pop jazz tunes \u2018Up, Up and Away\u2019 (1967) and the number one smash \u2018Grazing in the Grass\u2019 (1968), which sold four million copies.<\/p>\n

In the 70s he travelled the world, working in a variety of genres, including Afrobeat and funk. In the mid-80s he returned to southern Africa, basing himself across the border in Botswana and working with South African musicians on albums like \u2018Techno-Bush\u2019 (1984), which earned him another top 10 hit in the US<\/span> with \u2018Don\u2019t Go Lose It Baby\u2019, followed by Waiting For The Rain (1985). Other albums during that period, such as \u2018Home\u2019 (1982) and \u2018Tomorrow\u2019 (1987), also drew on top exiled musicians. He returned to South Africa in the early 90s and continues to record and perform regularly. In 2004 he published his autobiography, Still Grazing. His 2010 album \u2018Jabulani\u2019 won a Grammy Award for Best World Music in 2013.<\/p>\n