Older and wiser

If that is the case, then South African-born jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela should be believed when he tells the Gazette: "I feel strong, wise and dangerous, more than dangerous - lethal."

The 65-year-old was speaking from Chicago just minutes after emerging from the British Embassy. He had just spent an hour-and-a-half getting a new work permit and passport after losing all his documents.

But it is not these everyday trials that have made Masekela believe he is almost indestructible and playing the best music of his life - although he doesn't necessarily see it that way.

He said: "I am so proud of every-thing that has happened to me. I am 65 years old but I have not analysed my life that closely to see how my experiences have affected me."

Born near Johannesburg in 1939, Masekela - like millions of his com-patriots - had to grow up in a society where persecution and hatred were enshrined in the statute books.

Shortly after the 1960 Sharpville Massacre, he decided to escape the Apartheid regime, and his music helped him get out.

Masekela started playing the music that was all around him as he grew up - the street songs, the church songs and the protest songs. However, it wasn't until 1954 that he found his true musical love - the trumpet.

Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, who was later deported for his political views, gave him a trumpet and arranged for lessons. Masekela was inspired by the Bix Beiderbeck biopic Boy With A Horn and was soon a key member of the Huddleston Jazz Band, South Africa's first youth orchestra.

It wasn't until he left the country of his birth that Masekela's star really began to rise. He lived in London for a time before moving to the US. He was mixing with jazz greats like Johnny Dankworth, Harry Belafonte and Dizzy Gillespie, and soon carved out a successful career in his own right.

Leaving the poverty of South Africa for the riches of the US and the hedonism of the music world didn't necessarily make life easier, though. He began drinking heavily and got involved with drugs.

"I grew up in an addictive country," he told me, "just like England, but the problems were hidden. I grew up smoking and drinking and chose a profession where people smoked and drank.

"I came to the United States and got into the mainstream of the entertainment world in a time of free love, flower power, and drop-in and drop-out culture. I did everything, except for heroin."

Six years ago he checked into a rehab centre in England and has been clean since. He even started The Musicians and Artists Drug Foundation in South Africa to help others fight addiction.

Despite the hardships, Masekela believes he has been very lucky, saying: "Like many South Africans, I have survived Apartheid. I have been much luckier than most South Africans, though, because I have had the chance to get an education and get out and see the world.

"I am a very fortunate person, I have had good opportunities and been helped by lots of people."

Masekela's drug foundation is part of his attempt to help his own people and, as he puts it, "repay" his heritage.

He said: "I never expected to be able to go back to South Africa and so that is part of my miracle. I never thought we would be able to be free and go back home.

"It gives me a chance to repay the people who own the sources of my music. My resources come from my interaction with African musicians and through my travels where I have met many different musicians.

"I have been able to reimmerse myself in the culture of my childhood."

Masekela is relishing his music and the role he can now play in South Africa and the whole continent. He is still going strong and really does have justification for thinking he is stronger now than he has ever been.

"I've had a very interesting life," he said. " I'm lucky to have survived."

Hugh Masekela and the Jazz Jamaica All Stars will be appearing at The Anvil on Wednesday, June 30, at 7.45pm. Tickets, priced from £20, are available from the box office on 01256 844244.