#Jazz legend Hugh #Masekela passed away today, at the age of 78.

Hugh Masekela was born in a mining town in eastern South Africa. He received his first trumpet from Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, an apartheid activist, who formed a groundbreaking jazz band in Soweto in the 1950s and became a launch pad for many of South Africa's most famous jazz musicians. Masekela went on to study in the United Kingdom and the United States, where he achieved significant success. In addition to forming close friendships with jazz legends such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, Masekela performed in the 1960s with Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix. He returned to Africa, where he played with icons like Fela Kuti from Nigeria. In 1974, he helped organize a three-day festival for the 'Rumble in the Jungle' boxing competition in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. In 1976, the man who became known as the father of South African jazz composed Soweto Blues in response to the uprising. He toured with Paul Simon in the 80s while continuing his political commitment by writing Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela) in 1987. The song became an anthem of the anti-apartheid battle.