Dienstag, 18. Juli 2017

Hugh Masekela - Still Grazing

Released to coincide with Hugh Masekela's autobiography of the same name, "Still Grazing" picks up the Masekela story from Verve's summary of the best of the MGM albums, "The Lasting Impression of Ooga-Booga", and runs through the "Uni" and "Blue Thumb" material. The 1966 tracks are from "The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela", where the trumpeter mixes his florid horn calls and vocals with variations of the boogaloo, township jive, soul-jazz, and in Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Felicidade," a slight pinch of bossa nova into a hip, brightly colored cuisine that no one else was attempting at the time.

As in the MGM days, Masekela is obliged to cover the hit tunes of the day, although "Up, Up, and Away" has more life and jazz licks than those earlier attempts. 1968's "The Promise of a Future" was the real commercial breakthrough - thanks to the out-of-the-blue success of the cowbell-beating "Grazing in the Grass," which improbably rose to the number one slot on Top 40 radio in those enlightened times. That triumphant track would be Masekela's last trip to the Top 40, whereupon he promptly used the exposure to shine a harsh light on what was going on in his homeland ("Gold") and America in 1968 ("Mace and Grenades"). The CD then jumps to a percolating, Echoplexed "Languta" from a 1973 session in Lagos, Nigeria, before concluding with a withering account of the South African coal-mining trains ("Stimela").

The package is given extra credibility by the original producer of these tracks, Stewart Levine, who compiled the album and also wrote a fond set of reminiscences. Many of these premonitions of today's world music scene have been gone for decades, and it's good to have at least some of them back in circulation again.  


Tracklist:

1Child Of The Earth
Bass – John CartwrightCongas – Big Black (2)Drums – Chuck CarterPiano – Charlie SmallsProducer – Stewart LevineTrumpet, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Hugh Masekela
4:42
2Ha Lese Le Di Khanna
Bass – John CartwrightCongas – Big Black (2)Drums – Chuck CarterPiano – Charlie SmallsProducer – Stewart LevineTrumpet, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Caiphus Semenya
6:45
3Felicidade
Bass – John CartwrightCongas – Big Black (2)Drums – Chuck CarterPiano – Charlie SmallsProducer – Stewart LevineTrumpet – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes
10:12
4Up, Up, And Away
Bass – Henry FranklinDrums – Chuck CarterPiano – Cecil Barnard*Producer – Stewart LevineSaxophone [Tenor] – Al AbreuTrumpet – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Jimmy Webb
5:32
5Bajabula Bonke (The Healing Song)
Bass – Henry FranklinDrums – Chuck CarterPiano – William HendersonProducer – Stewart LevineSaxophone [Soprano] – Al AbreuTrumpet, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Miriam Makeba
6:29
6Grazing In The Grass
Bass – Henry FranklinDrums – Chuck CarterGuitar – Bruce LanghornePercussion – Unknown ArtistPiano – William HendersonProducer – Stewart LevineSaxophone [Tenor] – Al AbreuTrumpet, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Harry Elston, Philemon Hou
2:37
7Gold
Bass – Henry FranklinDrums – Chuck CarterGuitar – Arthur AdamsPiano – Bill Henderson*Producer – Stewart LevineTrumpet, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Hugh Masekela
4:10
8Mace And Grenades
Bass – Henry FranklinDrums – Chuck CarterGuitar – Arthur AdamsPiano – Bill Henderson*Producer – Stewart LevineSaxophone [Soprano, Tenor] – Al AbreuSaxophone [Tenor] – Wilton FelderTrombone – Wayne HendersonTrumpet, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Hugh Masekela
3:54
9Languta
Congas, Flute, Vocals – Nat "Leepuma" Hammond*Congas, Vocals – James Kwaku MortonDrums – Acheampong WelbeckDrums [Talking], Percussion, Vocals – Isaac Asante*Electric Bass, Vocals – Stanley Kwesi Todd*Guitar – Richard Neesai "Jagger" Botchway*Percussion, Vocals – Samuel Nortey*Producer – Stewart LevineTrumpet, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Hugh Masekela
4:49
10Been Such A Long Time
Congas – James Kwaku MortonCongas, Vocals – Nat "Leepuma" Hammond*Drums – Stix Hooper*Drums [Talking], Percussion, Vocals – Isaac Asante*Electric Bass, Vocals – Stanley Kwesi Todd*Electric Piano – Joe SampleGuitar – Richard Neesai "Jagger" Botchway*Producer – Stewart LevineRattle [Calabash], Bells, Bass Drum – Acheampong WelbeckShekere, Vocals – Samuel Nortey*Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Hugh Masekela
3:59
11Stimela (Coaltrain)
Congas – James Kwaku MortonCongas, Vocals – Nat "Leepuma" Hammond*Drums – Stix Hooper*Drums [Talking], Percussion, Vocals – Isaac Asante*Electric Bass, Vocals – Stanley Kwesi Todd*Guitar – Richard Neesai "Jagger" Botchway*Piano – Joe SampleProducer – Stewart LevineRattle [Calabash], Bells, Bass Drum – Acheampong WelbeckShekere, Vocals – Samuel Nortey*Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Vocals – Hugh MasekelaWritten-By – Hugh Masekela
6:28

Hugh Masekela - Still Grazing
(192 kbps, front cover included)            

6 Kommentare:

Anonym hat gesagt…

How about something dedicated to the the struggle of the Palestinian people in Gaza?

Feilimid O'Broin hat gesagt…

I agree wholeheartedly with Anonym. I would also welcome any protest music by Israeli musicians and singers opposed to the Netanyahu coalition's destructive policies. To be honest, as an American, I am unimpressed by protests in this country against the Israeli occupation and war. Until I see similar large protests demanding that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld be tried for war crimes and civilian deaths in Iraq and Kissinger be tried for war crimes in Cambodia and Laos, I question the ethical and moral consistency of many of the protestors. Similarly, the allies and United States have never had to respond to charges concerning the targeting of civilians in Hamburg, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and other cities during the second world war. To be selective in one's concern about war on civilians, a military strategy since Franco's brutality during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s strikes me as inconsistent and somewhat hypocritical. The grim and horrific reality is that attacks on civilians are an integral part of modern warfare. Apparently destroying another country's military is inadequate and, since Franco's atrocities against Basques In Guernica and other cities, the intent is to destroy a country's ability to even form a military by destroying it's civilian population.

My twenty year-old daughter is horrified by the current conflicts and wars around the world and asked me if it has always been this way. I responded that, during my lifetime, it has and the critical difference between now and prior decades is that journalism and news coverage make us much more aware of what really occurs during modern warfare,

zero hat gesagt…

Yes, protest music by Israeli musicians and singers opposed to the Netanyahu coalition would be a good thing. But sorry, i don´t know anything about that kind of music - somebody else can help?

Anonym hat gesagt…

Music by Palestinian musicians would be appreciated, if that is permitted by the hosts of this blog.

zero hat gesagt…

I am not familiar with Palestinian music - maybe you can upload something interesting for us? Greetings!

Cri hat gesagt…

Zero, ginge ein Re-Up?

Kommentar veröffentlichen