The last moments Hugh Masekela spent with his eldest son, Selema, were filled with laughter as the two watched a comedy show together just weeks before the legendary musician died of prostate cancer this week.
Known for his wit and sense of humour, Masekela was a comedy fan and during his time in exile became close friends with comedian Richard Pryor.
Comedy became a shared passion of Masekela and Selema, or Sal as he is known.
"[Our final moment] was sitting and watching the new [US stand-up comedian] Dave Chappelle special on my laptop. He was a fan and he said: 'I think that this guy has just eclipsed Pryor,'" Sal told the Sunday Times this week.Sal, who is a TV host, sports commentator, actor and singer, travelled the world in his youth with his father.
His band, Alekesam, shares the name of his first film, which chronicles his relationship with his father and their connection through music. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012.
In 2010, Sal was hired by sports network ESPN to help in its coverage of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa.
He and his father were featured in a series of videos called Umlando - Through my Father's Eyes. It focused on Masekela and Sal's travels through South Africa, with Masekela taking his first-born to the places where he had grown up. It was Sal's first trip to South Africa.
Masekela left South Africa in 1960 to attend the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Sal was born in 1971. His mother is Haitian.
In a Facebook post shortly after his father's death, Sal wrote that Masekela had always had an "undying and childlike love for South Africa and the entire African continent".Masekela's brother, Lesetja, told the Sunday Times how his elder sibling had suffered for years because of the prostate cancer. He died aged 78 at his flat in Johannesburg on Tuesday, in the presence of his daughter, Pula Twala, and his son-in-law.
"He was suffering in the last moments but he fought a very big fight and we had to allow him to move on," Lesetja said at a memorial for Masekela in Parktown on Wednesday. "He had left it in God's hands as to what happens [to him]."
Despite the cancer there was no sense that Masekela had been defeated, and the spirited event included surprise appearances by EFF leader Julius Malema and singer Thandiswa Mazwai.
"The last time I saw him he was full of life. He was a funny man and he didn't want us to feel bad about his condition," said Lesetja.
MENTOR, FRIEND, COLLABORATOR AND HERO - THE BRA HUGH LEGIONS OF FELLOW MUSICIANS KNEWHugh Masekela's former drummer Vusi Khumalo recalled the first time he met him. "I remember seeing him in London, he didn't know who I was but I knew him and I knew that we'd be working together soon. I saw him passing by, I shouted out to him in Zulu. When I caught his attention, I ran towards him and introduced myself. I told him that he'd be getting a call soon and we'd be working together in the US," Khumalo said. "We were always laughing. Before every show Bra Hugh got us all together to make sure we were on the same page. After the show we partied. I had a good time with that man; there are a lot of things I know today because of him. I was inspired by Bra Hugh. He loved good food and he was an activist and passionate about Africa. He also loved swimming. He never drank water from the tap, he only drank bottled water." - Leonie WagnerMusician and chef J'Something said Hugh Masekela was "the biggest star" he had ever met. "Spending time with him was a pivotal moment in my musical career. Bra Hugh made me feel a certain type of way that I had never felt in my life. I took my time with him as a learning time, so I would ask him questions. I'd ask him to tell me about Miriam Makeba and Brenda Fassie," J'Something said. The two collaborated on a song for a carmaker's promotion, travelling to Tsitsikamma in the Southern Cape for inspiration. "Bra Hugh said some musicians were possessed by music. I thought that sounded hectic, but he explained that he believed Brenda was one. He said Brenda always had a melody, she always had a song. I remember, he looked at me and said: 'J, I think you are one of those, you are possessed by music.' I thought, wow, this legend is basically comparing me to these other legends." - Leonie WagnerHugh Masekela was a mentor to singer Berita, who he collaborated with on the song Mwana Wa Mai. The singer said she first met Bra Hugh at a music festival in 2013. She performed immediately after he did, and he stayed to watch her set. Afterwards he told her he had enjoyed "the simplicity" of her sound. "It took half a year to arrange that we work together. When it finally happened I was so nervous to play him my music. "It was on my iPod, I didn't realise that I hadn't pressed play. Bra Hugh listened for a while and then said: 'This is really nice, but where is the music?' We both just laughed." - Leonie WagnerSinger Yvonne Chaka Chaka spoke fondly of "Uncle Hugh", who she met in the 1980s. "I remember our trip to Nigeria for the Children of Africa concert. There were some problems with the arrangements so they put us all in a presidential guesthouse. "There were a lot of problems but Uncle Hugh made us forget all about them. Wherever he was, there was laughter." She said Masekela was very particular about what he ate and was a "foodie" long before the term was trendy. She would "especially miss our breakfast meetings" where he'd eat pawpaw and mango and they'd discuss the music industry. "I'm very privileged to have known and worked with him," she said. "He was larger than life." - Leonie WagnerSinger Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse knew Hugh Masekela for more than 45 years. One of his fondest memories is of when they were both in London. Bra Hugh invited him over for lunch, but when they got to Masekela's place the musician insisted on rehearsing first. "He just left me and said he had to practise. I was so hungry ... But this just showed the discipline that Hugh had. And mind you, he didn't have a show coming up, but he insisted on rehearsing." In 1988, Mabuse invited Masekela to Brussels for his album recording. "After the recording it was the most emotional goodbye. I was returning home but Hugh was going back to New York. I could see the sadness and his longing to return to South Africa. That moment inspired me to write the song Refugee (Come Home)," Mabuse said. - Leonie WagnerJuly marks the 50th anniversary of Grazing in the Grass, the Hugh Masekela song that in 1968 reached No1 on the Billboard charts in the US, where he had lived in exile since he was 21. It was an achievement Louis Molamu, who chairs the Hugh Masekela Foundation, said "overwhelmed" the young musician, 29 at the time. "Hugh went to Zambia to visit [his sister] Barbara Masekela, and he heard these cow bells. When he got back to the studio in Los Angeles he said the sound just kept on coming back, and they just got this stroke of genius and composed Grazing in the Grass." - Farren Collins
 
THREE POUNDS, 17 SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE
That's what Hugh Masekela was paid to perform in Todd Matshikiza's 1959 musical, King Kong. His cousin Jonas Gwangwa, reminiscing about it this week, said it was more than any of the jazz players in the ensemble had previously earned..