The Saturday morning listen: press play as you ponder your next gig-going options perhaps standing in the launderette opposite the Esso as the motors beyond on the dual carriageway pick up a gear heading north. Putting your best anorak in the machine for a well deserved spin so to a top refresh to ward of feelings of big coat bereftness and none finer than the much missed South African Bra Hugh as his legions of fans knew the iconic Hugh Masekela (1939-2018) heard on 1980s Joe Jackson hardy perennial 'Steppin' Out' found on Masekela's Beatin' Aroun De Bush (Novus, 1992). We also dig the later Kurt Elling (2011) lit up Was-ified classic The Gate treatment and could listen to the song in different versions for hours but curiously not so much ur text Night and Day (1982) era Jackson. A sweet little mystery, that.

Staying with Masekela it is impossible to not then play Bra Hugh's hard hitting 'Stimela' anti-racist classic depicting the exploitation of African migrant proletarian labour, a moving song that nevertheless the several times I saw and heard the great trumpeter and flugel player/vocaliser, orator live always had the crowd seriously gone.

It was like something had touched our collective souls. Because when Masekela was about it usually had.

The goosebumps inducing lines '''There is a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi/There is a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe/There is a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique…'' set the serious mood and make the room sociopolitically conscious to the wicked world we live in like we need to be so vitally awakened then and indeed still today. Hugh Masekela, photo: Wikipedia

MORE READING:

• Hugh Masekela and Larry Willis, Barbican, London - live review, 2015