Hugh Masekela is one of the legends of South African music. A child prodigy, he mastered the trumpet in the mid-1950’s and got his big break when he joined the orchestra of Todd Matshikiza’s smash hit musical King Kong, which toured the world for two years. After the Sharpville Massacre, Masekela went into excile. With the help of Harry Belafonte he became a big start in the USA, where he had a number one pop song called “Grazin’ in the Grass” in 1968.

In the photograph Hugh Masekela leaps into the air with delight after receiving a trumpet from American jazz legend, Louis Armstrong, 1956. The trumpet came to him via Trevor Huddleston, the anti-apartheid activist and priest. Almost half a century later the image was chosen for the cover of a book on Masekela’s life.