Live in Lesotho

In December 1980 the African businessman Victor Maloi arranged a concert for Masekela and Miriam Makeba in Lesotho, a country completely surrounded by South Africa, the homeland they had not been allowed to visit in 20 years. The concert drew a crowd of 75,000, most of whom had poured across the border to attend, including Masekela's father and grandmother whom he hadn't seen in two decades. Plans to record the concert were thwarted by technical problems, so Masekela and his band of mostly American jazz musicians recorded a cut-down version of their set in the ballroom of the local Holiday Inn. At the time the recording received a limited vinyl release and is now reissued for the first time in 40 years.

The six tracks allow for plenty of soloing and stretching out, with pianist Don Blackman bouncing off Masekela's burnished flugelhorn and René McLean's saxophone. The spirit of Afrobeat infuses opener ‘Ashiko’, composed by the saxophonist Orlando Julius, but ‘Ha Le Se Le Li Khanna’ and ‘Part of a Whole’ – both written by Caiphus Semenya – are classic township jazz workouts. The highlight is the 20-minute epic ‘Stimela’, Masekela's signature lament for South Africa's black migrant workers, complete with growled narration and train-whistle vocal effects.