Ladysmith Black Mambazo

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO

Formed: 1964, Durban, South Africa

Members: Jabulani Dubazana (born South Africa, 25 April 1954); Abednego Mazibuko (born Ladysmith, South Africa, 12 March 1954); Albert Mazibuko (born Ladysmith, South Africa, 16 April 1948); Geophrey Mdletshe (born South Africa, 23 January 1960); Russel Mthembu (born South Africa, 12 March 1947); Inos Phungula (born South Africa, 31 March 1945); Ben Shabalala (born Ladysmith, South Africa, 30 November 1957); Jockey Shabalala (born Lady-smith, South Africa, 4 November 1944); Joseph Shabalala (born Ladysmith, South Africa, 28 August 1940). Former member: Headman Shabalala (born Ladysmith, South Africa, 9 October 1945; died Durban, South Africa, 11 December 1991).

Genre: World

Best-selling album since 1990: The Star and the Wise Man (1998)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the colorful men's choral ensemble led by Joseph Shabalala, is a musical diplomatic corps representing postapartheid South Africa and the liberation of black traditions from repressive policies reaching back to the nineteenth century. Their greatest international renown resulted from their collaboration with Paul Simon, the American singer/songwriter, on the album Graceland (1985).

Ladysmith Black Mambazo were big sellers in South Africa even before Paul Simon featured them on "Homeless" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" on Graceland and in his subsequent tours and television appearances on shows ranging from Saturday Night Live to Sesame Street. But Ladysmith Black Mambazo were far from an overnight success. Ladysmith Black Mambazo's director, Joseph Shabalala, is the oldest son of eight children of tenant farmers living near the South African town Ladysmith. As a teenager he played guitar and sang, eventually joining the Devan Choir, an Iscathamiya ("tiptoe guys") singing group that performed the music South African migrant laborers developed in the late 1800s—"tiptoeing" for fear of being punished if their parties became too loud.

Shabalala established his own band in Durban in 1960 but in 1964 claimed to have heard new harmonies in a dream. Consequently he converted to Christianity and induced his brothers Headman and Jockey and their cousins the Mazibuko brothers into joining Ladysmith (for the name of their hometown) Black (referring to black oxen) Mambazo (axe, meaning they cut the competition).

Their first album, Amabutho (1973), was the first African LP to go gold (sales of 25,000). The ensemble steadily issued other highly successful records in Africa into the mid-1980s. But they gained worldwide renown when Simon discovered them on pirated cassette tapes, visited South Africa to find Shabalala, signed Ladysmith Black Mambazo to Warner Bros., and produced their first U.S. album, the Grammy-winning Shaka Zulu (1987). In a controversial move Simon toured with the ensemble during the global boycott of South Africa prior to apartheid's fall. Simon and Shabalala believed it better to express South Africa's black culture than to silence themselves to shame the white government.

The group's thick, warm tenor-baritone-bass harmonies answering Shamabala's leads are derived from Anglican hymns and three major sounds from Zulu singing, characterized by Shabalala as "a high keening ululation; a grunting, puffing sound that we make when we stomp our feet; and a certain way of singing melody." Shabalala also cites an affinity for the blues; his arrangements suggest African-American spirituals, too. The music bespeaks his Christian faith, including forbearance in the face of pain. When in 1991 his brother Headman was shot dead on a highway near Durban by a white South African security guard (who was convicted of manslaughter), Joseph's response was, "Keep singing."

Ladysmith Black Mambazo enjoyed the endorsement of Nelson Mandela prior to singing at his inauguration in 1994; at his request the group sang at the Oslo ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize he shared with F. W. de Klerk, former president of South Africa, in 1993. In 1996 Mandela invited Ladysmith Black Mambazo to accompany him to London to meet Queen Elizabeth.

The ensemble returned to London for a triumphant concert that was recorded and released as an album and video, Live at the Royal Albert Hall (1999). At Mandela's behest they also represented South Africa in celebrations of the Queen's fifty-year reign in 2002, singing "Hey Jude" and "All You Need Is Love" with Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, and Phil Collins.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo has performed in Rome for the pope, on Muhammad Ali's sixtieth-birthday television special, and at the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize Concert honoring Doctors Without Borders. They have recorded with Stevie Wonder and Dolly Parton, among others. They are heard on Michael Jackson's Moon Walker (1988) video and on soundtracks of various films, including Disney's The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1999), Coming to America (1988), A Dry White Season (1989), and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995).

Ladysmith Black Mambazo's a capella purity translates well to the stage. The group developed the musical play The Song of Jacob Zulu (1992) with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company. The Broadway production, with Ladysmith Black Mambazo members acting and singing, earned six Tony Award nominations and a Drama Desk Award for original score. The group developed another musical, Nomathemba (1995), with writer Ntozake Shange. Based on the story behind Shabalala's first Ladysmith Black Mambazo song, the play enjoyed well-received runs in Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Eric Simonson directed both plays and co-directed On Tip Toe: Gentle Steps to Freedom (2000), a documentary on Ladysmith Black Mambazo that was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award and a 2002 Emmy Award.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo maintains a full concert and touring schedule despite Joseph Shabalala's academic positions as an associate professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Nepal and at UCLA in California. He also directs the Mambazo Foundation for South African Music and Culture, which was founded in 1999 "to promote fund-raising efforts to devise a proper academic syllabus to teach South African students about their indigenous culture." Few listeners in the United States would have any awareness of South Africa's indigenous male vocal culture were it not for Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Shaka Zulu (Warner Bros., 1987); Two Worlds One Heart (Warner Bros., 1991); Liph' Iqiniso (Shanachie, 1994); Gift of the Tortoise (Warner Bros., 1994); Thuthukani Ngoxolo (Shanachie, 1996); Heavenly (Shanachie, 1997); Star & the Wise Man (Shanachie, 1998); Live at Royal Albert Hall (Shanachie, 1999); In Harmony (Polygram, 2001). With Dolly Parton: Peace Train (RCA, 1996). With Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros., 1985); Rhythm of the Saints (Warner Bros., 1990). With Andreas Vollenweider: Book of Roses (Columbia, 1992); Kryptos (Sony Classical, 1998). With Stevie Wonder: Conversation Peace (Motown, 1995).

WEBSITE:

www.mambazo.com.

howard mandel