The Promise of a Future – Hugh Masekela, 1968

🎷🌍✊🏾🇿🇦 In 1961, apartheid in South Africa forced Hugh Masekela into exile in the USA, and it was through contact with Harry Belafonte that his career took off. In 1968, this hope-filled The Promise of a Future contained one of his first major international hits, Grazing in the Grass, which he regularly covered in concerts worldwide. The first side is straight bop and soul jazz – including a cover of Ain’t no mountain high enough – before the second takes us into jazz immersed in South African folklore, with rhythms, sounds, and harmonies inspired by Zulu culture. Masekela would not return home until the early 90s. Meanwhile, his 1987 track Bring Him Back Home had become the anthem of the anti-apartheid movement. In December 2007, Hugh Masekela performed on the main stage at Place de la Victoire in Pointe-à-Pitre to close the ÎloJazz festival. He was photographed by Philippe Virapin.