Wanna Be Startin' Something: Hugh Masekela and "Rock With You"

The late South African jazz trumpeter, cornetist, flugelhornist, composer and singer Hugh Masekela brings us today's random tune. Hugh Masekela began singing and playing piano as a child, but took up the trumpet after seeing Kirk Douglas play a trumpeter modeled on Bix Beiderbecke in the movie Young Man with a Horn. His music has always reflected his life experience during South Africa's apartheid era, and through his music he reached a large portion of the population living through the oppression. He helped form and played with the groundbreaking group The Jazz Epistles, the first African jazz group to record an LP. He is known in the United States for his interpretation of the 5th Dimension's Up, Up and Away (1967) and his hit Grazing in the Grass (1968). He was once married to singer Miriam Makeba, and he toured with Paul Simon in support of his Graceland album. He has also worked with African artists of all stripes, and he is involved in a number of South African social initiatives. This song, Rock With You, is a cover of the Michael Jackson song and can be found on his 1992 album Beatin' Aroun de Bush.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Masekela