We take things for granted... We see an old man playing a trumpet and make silly conclusions about how his life as a jazz musician should be uninteresting. We flip the channel and see these rappers with a fake smirk and leased cars fabricate "thee life" in a music video and think "that's the life". Not realising this is the life our own great jazz musicians live/lived and actually created. In particular Hugh Masekela who has lived like a f*cken, care-free, infectiousness rockstar. We forget that they were once young and as impulsive as us, and women have always been sexy and the vixen for any successful man. They lived in a time when alcahol and drugs were new with unknown dangers but orgasmic highs.
I bought the new Rolling stone magazine with Hugh on the cover thinking, I'm not gonna read that story, let's see what else is in it.... Well that story is the most suprising and certainly the most entertaining. He's crossed paths with the greats, Miles Davis, Jimmy Hendrix, Malcolm X... Was good friends with Marvin Gaye and played with greats such as Bob Marley. He's been stalked by the FBI and made many "rockstar" mistakes in his life. The life young people are trying to mimic isn't of these rappers that need a camera and a storyboard to act it out, it's of great musicians like Hugh who didn't see it on TV then emulate it; but was their reality and were lucky enough to tell the story. I now have a great found interest in the old greats of the country and how they got to were they are. Their experiences deserve a book and even a movie. Film makers get cracking!!!
The Tiger Himself follow @ttigersstory
