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Desert Island Discs

Classic Desert Island Discs: Hugh Masekela

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2018

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Another chance to listen to the world famous musician speaking to Sue Lawley in 2004. As a boy growing up in the impoverished townships of South Africa, he was inspired to learn the trumpet after seeing Kirk Douglas play Bix Beiderbecke in Young Man With A Horn. He begged one of his teachers - the anti-apartheid crusader Father Trevor Huddleston - to buy him a horn and in return he promised to stay out of trouble. Hugh soon made a name for himself in South Africa but as the racial tensions intensified during the 50s he decided he had to leave his homeland to get a better music education in America. There he quickly made a name for himself with his fusion of African jazz music and became a 'flower child' playing with some of the great bands of the decade: Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and the Byrds. He's still probably best known for his number-one track, Grazing in the Grass, which sold four million copies worldwide in 1968. He returned to Africa in 1973, spending the next 17 years working on a range of musical collaborations in Botswana, Liberia, Nigeria, Congo and Guinea. Then, after thirty years in self-imposed exile, he returned to his homeland in 1990. Favourite track: Lilizela Mlilezeli by Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens Book: Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens Luxury: A keyboard

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Desert Island Discs.

0:02.0

We're currently taking a break and so we thought it'd be a good opportunity

0:05.7

to showcase some of the best additions from our extensive treasure chest.

0:09.6

We hope you enjoy them.

0:11.0

This is the BBC.

0:15.0

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

0:19.6

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

0:22.6

The programme was originally broadcast in 2004

0:26.2

and the presenter was Sue Lolley.

0:30.0

Music

0:45.0

My cosyway this week is a musician.

0:47.0

He was born 65 years ago into the appalling hardship of a black South African township,

0:52.6

a part-eight ruled.

0:54.0

He lived with his grandmother who ran an illegal drinking house, a chabine,

0:57.8

so his prospects for a successful life were small.

1:00.8

Luckily for him, the campaigning priest Trevor Huddleston bought him a trumpet on condition

1:05.8

he kept out of trouble.

1:07.8

His talent was obvious and at the age of 21, helped by Huddleston and some eminent international musicians,

1:13.8

he left his homeland for a career in America.

1:16.8

He played with some of the all-time great Jimmy Hendrix, Bob Marley and the Birds

1:20.8

and became an international name himself.

1:23.8

Then, thirty years on, at the invitation of Nelson Mandela, he returned to his homeland.

...

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