LISTEN · DISCOVER · CONNECT
Hugh Masekela | Essential albums and listening guide
Explore Hugh Masekela through The Promise of a Future. Discover what to listen for and follow related styles to your next record.
Hugh Masekela
Meet the artist
A South African trumpeter, singer and activist who maintained strong musical ties to home during exile. Jazz, dance rhythms and song meet in his immediately communicative sound. Bright brass carries the feel of South African song and dance.
Short repeated melodies gain momentum through bass and percussion. Encounters with American jazz and soul did not turn music from home into a distant relic. Singing and playing move naturally together, and approachable grooves can carry a social perspective as well as an invitation to dance.
Where to start listening
Compare the buoyancy of The Promise of a Future with the live energy of Hope, listening for the close relationship between singing and brass.
1968The Promise of a Future
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela connects an accessible popular-song sensibility with African rhythmic feeling. The Promise of a Future includes his widely recognised recording of Grazing in the Grass.
Open this album in the Atlas →
1994Hope
Hugh Masekela
A live recording from Washington, D.C., with South African musicians. Singing, brass and shared grooves give a vivid sense of Hugh Masekela's musical world.
Open this album in the Atlas →
Years follow the Atlas catalogue. Recording dates, original release dates and digital reissue dates may differ.