Masekela Plans For The Future

During the past four years, Hugh Masekela's Chissa Entertainment has established itself as one of South Africa's most visionary independent music companies.

The renowned 66-year-old jazz trumpet/flugelhorn player is chairman of Chissa Entertainment, which he founded with CEO Irfaan Gillan in 2001. The rapidly expanding company has just made a worldwide publishing administration deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Masekela says Chissa hopes to create a "songwriter's laboratory" with Sony/ATV in South Africa, "where we can nurture songwriters to create songs that can be placed both in South Africa and internationally."

London-based Sony/ATV Music Publishing senior VP of international Guy Henderson calls the November deal "particularly significant for our South African affiliate." There, managing director Jay Savage "has created an environment where writers of the stature of Hugh can feel comfortable," Henderson says.

The Chissa publishing division represents five writers, including Masekela. His own recording career spans five decades and numerous labels, including MCA/Universal, Verve, Sony, Jive and—in the early 1970s—his own U.S.-based Chisa imprint.

Masekela left his native South Africa in 1960 to escape apartheid and eventually settled in the United States, where he married vocalist and fellow South African exile Miriam Makeba in 1964. Although the pair divorced in 1966, they became musical icons of the anti-apartheid movement in the following quarter-century.

Masekela eventually returned to his homeland in 1990, after future president Nelson Mandela was released from prison. However, he struggled during the next seven years with alcohol and cocaine abuse, recalled in his 2004 autobiography "Still Grazing." Having cleaned up, in 1998 he helped launch the Musicians and Artists Assistance Program of South Africa to help others with similar problems.

"Hugh has been an exceptional role model over the past few years," says Nick Motsatse, deputy CEO/marketing director at authors body the South African Music Rights Organization. "He has always carried the flag for South African music internationally."

The Chissa group includes labels division Chissa Music Entertainment, which contains two imprints, Chissa Records and Bala Bros. Records. Other divisions deal with video production, artist management and concert promotion. Masekela says the company is currently finalizing a deal that will give it control of national distributor Bowline Music.

Distribution "has always been a white-owned business," he says. "I don't think anyone thought a black-owned company would move into it. But we realized that depending on old-establishment structures would not get us anywhere."

Gillan says the group's long-term vision is to move into other African markets and then international territories. "That's why it's important to establish administrative structures and centers," he says, "to support the creative element and take great product to the world."

Masekela is signed as a recording artist to Chissa Records. In October, the label released his latest album, "Almost Like Being in Jazz," licensed to Straight Ahead Records in the United States. Chissa is also negotiating with Masekela's former labels to obtain the rights to his back catalog.

The Chissa labels' roster contains nine other artists. Releases planned for 2006 include African vibraphone player Ngwako Manamela, Zulu singer/songwriter Busi Mhlongo and 18-year-old Afrikaans soul singer Corlea.

Masekela says he hopes Chissa can help bring South African music to international audiences. "South Africa became popular overseas through a 'liberation perspective,' " he says. "What the world tended to sideline is that South Africans are talented; we don't just derive our talent from the struggle."

Chissa already plays an important role in South Africa as a black-owned independent music company, Motsatse says. The group's "diversity, its vision and commitment to creating a new business model makes it a real force in this country's music sector," he says.

"We're currently doing a lot of groundwork in terms of putting American deals in place for our product," Gillan adds. "Hugh's reputation and contacts will play a key role in this; with the Sony/ATV and Bowline deals, we feel very confident about what 2006 holds in store." ••••