There’s a piece from years past in the Vanity Fair that I always think of when I consider just what it is to be cool, in the classic sense of the word. The writer was writing about Brad Pitt and George Clooney at the height of their cool around the time of all the Ocean’s Eleven movies and how, if they were chatting up your girlfriend at a party, you’d applaud yourself.
It’s the perfect analogy of just what cool is.
When I read or listen to anything about the era of Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa and their experiences abroad, all I think is “man, these men were just too damn cool”. They lived in a black and white era — that while not kind — managed to rise above it with a swagger that no musician today can live up to. This week’s Friday section in the Mail & Guardian marks their lives that, oddly enough, ended in this very month of January along with another jazz great that exudes this mystical cool, Sibongile Khumalo.
It’s definitely the cool edition of the year as editor of the section, Lerato Tshabalala, also celebrates the music of Sade. The band and its lead, which it is named after, are certainly no ordinary bunch.
I hope you enjoy our Friday coverage as much as I have, as well as the coverage of the story of the year to date, Eskom. We try as best as possible to give a contextual take of just why we are here and who brought us to this point.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish