Tanglewood

Review of Hugh Masakela at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival

By Dave ⋅ September 5, 2007 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

August 31 performance reviewed by Dave Conlin Read.

Hugh Masakela is a miracle worker; he got the oldest audience this side of Pleasant Meadows to rise and be funky during his set that opened the 2007 Tanglewood Jazz Festival. He accomplished the feat by exhorting them to get off their “numb bums” an hour into his set - yet it was the infectious groove of “Bring Him Back Home” that followed and the spirit of Nelson Mandela that energized the audience and kept them moving.

Maskela is a trumpeter and flugelhorn player best known for his 1968 hit “Grazin’ in the Grass,” a spirited, stretched-out rendition of which came in the middle of the set, but, we were just as impressed by his vocal artistry, especially as displayed in “Stimela,” a song about the trains that take men to the coal mines.

It was a wonderfully evocative piece of musical story telling, from the cacphonous bell calling the workers to the station, through the sounds of their ordeals, to the noise of the steam engine coming to a stop and a final pair of whistle toots.

Masakela may have waxed a bit hortatory in song setups, hitting polemics when his aim was poetics, but he and his able band put on a very good show.