News & Updates — Hugh Masekela

Happy birthday to one of my very favorites, the soulful saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, an exile from apartheid South Africa and a major contributor to the '70s creative jazz landscape. He started playing professionally in the '50s with Kippie Moeketsi and Nik Moyake. Pukwana and Moyake became members (along with Johnny Dyani, Mongezi Feza and Louis Moholo) of the Blue Notes, a group led nominally by white pianist Chris McGregor, but were essentially a collective. They became a sensation for both the quality of their music as well as the fact that they were a mixed-race band, something that was illegal...