Hugh Masekela - Masekela '66 - '76 (2018)
XLD Rip | FLAC (tracks, cue, log) - 1.3 GB
3:44:46 | Jazz, Afrobeat, World, Soul-Jazz, Jazz-Funk | Label: Wrasse Records
Like his compatriot and close contemporary Abdullah Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela has a 24-carat discography which stretches back six decades and digs deep into the taproot of jazz. Ibrahim is still with us—he has a new album scheduled for June 2019—but Masekela passed in January 2018. Among the several solid Masekela compilations on the market, this 3-CD set is the most welcome. It deals with the most prolific phase of Masekela's career and brings back into circulation material from landmark albums which have either never been reissued or which were last reissued twenty or thirty years ago. Two of the most important albums—Introducing Hedzolleh Soundz (Chisa/Blue Thumb, 1973) and I Am Not Afraid (Chisa/Blue Thumb, 1974)—are included in their entirety. If Masekela '66—'76 did no more than make these titles available again it would justify its existence. But it does much more.