No borders

"This is Hugh Masekela's first album in five years, and the emphasis is on his powerful vocal work as much as his horn playing. There are reminders of his travels to Nigeria and meetings with Fela Kuti on Shango, his visits to Kinshasa with Congo Women, while the South African township jive includes a stirring reworking of The Rooster and the gutsy KwaZulu. At almost 80 minutes, it's a long and varied set".

Read review

"Top of the world" - "That difficult 44th album...: At 78 years young, Masekela sounds as fiercely committed and as vibrant as ever ... He says he set out to make an album with an 'international diaspora kind of feel' and a smorgasbord of rhythms drawn from across the world's most musical continent sway and shuffle in and out of the trademark township jazz tropes. The opener 'Shuffle & Bow' is an angry tirade about the legacy of slavery with some mighty septuagenarian blowing on Bra Hugh's flugelhorn. 'Shango' shimmers to a Nigerian Afrobeat groove ... For the first time ever, Masekela duets with his son Selema (aka Alekesam) on 'In an Age', which includes a thrilling Zulu rap and was produced in Los Angeles by Sunny Levine, whose father Stewart helmed Masekela's number-one single, 'Grazing in the Grass' almost half a century ago. There's a lovely tribute to Mama Africa herself on a nostalgic township instrumental simply titled 'Makeba' while the feel-good 'Heaven in You' features the voice of J'Something from the white South African pop trio Mi Casa. Fabulous stuff from the grand old man".