66-76

When Masekela arrived in New York in the early 1960s, his fellow trumpeter Miles Davis took the exile to one side and gave him some sage advice. “You're just going to be a statistic if you play jazz,” Davis told him. “But if you put in some of the stuff you remember from Africa, you'll be different from everybody.” The result was a glorious fusion of American jazz and African township rhythms, which made him anti-apartheid's premier global musical ambassador and, in 1968, took him to number one in the US charts with ‘Grazing in the Grass’. The 47 tracks here – including his chart-topping hit – are all taken from the 11 LPs he made between 1966 and 1976 with American producer Stewart Levine, who contributes the accompanying notes in a splendid 24-page booklet. Many of the songs remained staples of his live repertoire until his death, including ‘Stimela (Coal Train)’, ‘The Boy's Doin’ It' and ‘Mamani’. Other tracks may be less familiar to the casual fan, but almost every one of them is a gem. For a taste of the lesser-known Masekela try ‘Song for Brazil’ with Sivica on vocals and accordion, Bra Hugh's beguiling jazz-pop take on Motown on ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’, the exuberant ‘Languta’ with Hedzoleh Soundz and ‘Hush (Somebody's Calling My Name)’, on which he's backed by the Crusaders.