AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The late Hugh Masekela was dubbed the Father of South African jazz.
(SOUNDBITE OF HUGH MASEKELA SONG, "SOWETO BLUES")
RASCOE: Now a new nightclub named for him is bringing his groove back to the city and showcasing today's South African talent. Kate Bartlett has the story.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASSES CLINKING)
KATE BARTLETT, BYLINE: The drinks are flowing. The club is buzzing.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: So ladies and gentlemen, please get it together for refinement, for the brilliance, for legacy, Mdu and Mimi Mtshali at Hugh's.
(APPLAUSE)
BARTLETT: And the music is just getting started...
MIMI MTSHALI: (Singing) Yeah, tonight, come see...
BARTLETT: ...At Johannesburg's newest music venue Hugh's, named after the world-famous trumpeter South Africans simply called Bra - or brother - Hugh. The club was set up in collaboration with the Hugh Masekela Heritage Foundation, and on opening night, Masekela's 84-year-old sister, Barbara, paid homage to her brother, who died in 2018.
(APPLAUSE)
BARBARA MASEKELA: There is no place for people to go in Johannesburg and just to enjoy music and to chill. And this place looks like it's going to be the place. And it's a wonderful thing. I just wish Hugh were here to see it.
MIMI MTSHALI: (Singing) [inaudible].
BARTLETT: The club overlooks Johannesburg, colloquially Joburg, with the famous Nelson Mandela Bridge all lit up in rainbow colors. It's a place to see and be seen, and the red velvet New-York-style booths contain well-heeled jazz enthusiasts in eclectic evening wear, ranging from sequins to shweshwe, which is a vibrant, traditional South African fabric. Local radio personality Nonn Botha is among them and glad to see an intergenerational crowd at the club.
NONN BOTHA: It's so beautiful to see that Bra Hugh's spirit lives on in so many other young people.
BARTLETT: The group playing tonight is led by singer Mimi Mtshali and pianist Mdu Mtshali, who are partners in both senses of the word, having met 26 years ago at church music camp.
MDU MTSHALI: We met through music, And yeah, just, that's when we hit it off (laughter). It was love at first sight.
BARTLETT: Mdu explains what Bra Hugh meant to him.
MDU MTSHALI: What a legendary musician that, you know, Hugh Masekela was. He was bigger than life for me, yeah. He would preach to us and say, you must sound like instead of like an African, you know, you must be African enough. Be proud of who you are.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRING HIM BACK HOME (NELSON MANDELA)")
BARTLETT: For South Africans, Masekela was more than a musician. He was a tireless voice against white minority rule.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRING HIM BACK HOME (NELSON MANDELA)")
HUGH MASEKELA: (Singing) Bring back Nelson Mandela. Bring him back home to Soweto.
BARTLETT: As the apartheid regime grew increasingly brutal, Masekela went into exile in New York, where he was befriended by American jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Harry Belafonte.
(SOUNDBITE OF HUGH MASEKELA'S "GRAZING IN THE GRASS")
BARTLETT: His instrumental hit "Grazing In The Grass" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. While in the U.S., he was also briefly married to fellow South African activist and musician Miriam Makeba. Masekela only returned home in the '90s after Mandela was released and South Africa transitioned to democracy.
(SOUNDBITE OF HUGH MASEKELA'S "GRAZING IN THE GRASS")
BARTLETT: While many of the patrons at Hugh's are too young to remember apartheid, like 36-year-old accountant Aluta Madikizela...
ALUTA MADIKIZELA: There's just songs that just draw you to, like, certain memories of your childhood and when your parents were joyful, and it's Hugh. It's Hugh's music.
BARTLETT: They say the music is in their blood.
Kate Bartlett, NPR News, Johannesburg.
(SOUNDBITE OF HUGH MASEKELA'S "GRAZING IN THE GRASS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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