THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
From the youngest child to the oldest grandparent, they love to sing together. Their songs have seen them through good times and through very hard times, as they sing about the beauty of their land and the special love they feel for one another.
- Geina Mhlophe, from the Ladysmith Black Mambazo album ``Gift of the Tortoise''
THE MUSIC HAS stood for ages. It has remained a mighty expression and influence at home in South Africa. And it has traveled to places that no one, except perhaps the sound itself, ever thought it might.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been the foremost attache for South African choir singing. Their concert Sunday night at Chrysler Hall will bring to Hampton Roads a piece of tradition that has, in recent years, been heard by millions around the world. The music has carried on through tragedy and helped contribute to the ultimate defeat of South Africa's apartheid system.
Joseph Shabalala literally had a dream. In 1964, he slept and heard a harmony sound that he eventually taught to the other men who joined him to create Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Their name signifies a black axe from the township Ladysmith, sharp enough to cut down all competition.
The nine-member outfit recorded many albums and toured exclusively in southern Africa for years. Shabalala's dream, however, had not prophesied the worldwide attention that was to come.
``Oh, Ladysmith Black Mambazo - their mission was to help the people to remember their culture and save their culture,'' said Shabalala, in a recent telephone interview from his home in Kloof, South Africa.
``In fact, we were, from the beginning, not expecting that our culture would (be) accepted. We must remind our people who they are, but it was surprising that people all over the world love our music. We go around the world now; we are invited. We find we are needed.''
Even in such an obscure language as Zulu, the beauty of Ladysmith's songs helps them communicate. Paul Simon was drawn to the complexity of the sound after seeing the group in a BBC documentary. Since his collaboration with the group on several cuts of his Grammy-winning 1986 album ``Graceland,'' they've been media darlings.
A song about the alphabet that they composed with Simon for a visit to ``Sesame Street'' has become a staple of their repertoire. They added sparkle to TV ads for Life Savers and 7-Up. They were the most praised element of the Broadway show ``The Song of Jacob Zulu,'' prompting The New York Times' theater critic Frank Rich to wax poetic about ``aurally subliminal frequencies more suggestive of heaven than of earth.''
Before heaven, of course, work on earth must be done. One can only imagine the strength and hope that allowed Ladysmith to continue in the face of institutionalized hate. Though ``Graceland'' was lambasted by some anti-apartheid forces, Shabalala sees it and the tours that followed as part of what finally brought the system down.
``Oh, yes. That's why all the time when we talk about apartheid, we said America helped a lot to stop the apartheid. When we come together (with Simon), it was wonderful. It was so very important to the people. They love this music. They were very happy that this music was being accepted.''
Shabalala kept pushing after the death of his brother and group member Headman at the hands of an off-duty security guard.
``We will sing,'' Joseph announced. ``This is what we do.''
To a New York audience in 1994, he exulted: ``Hey! Look at me! I'm free! I have a black president in Pretoria! I'm not a slave anymore!''
Perseverance is at the heart of another of his dreams. Shabalala has recently been spending time teaching indigenous music courses at the University of Natal near his home. As part of what he sees as a duty to carry on the tradition, he plans to expand his educational mission to the funding of a multimillion-dollar academy that would remind coming generations of their rich past and its implications for the present and future.
``The teaching,'' he said, ``it's not different than singing on stage. It's the same thing. When you talk about African music, you begin with the history, then it becomes music. It's all based in the same thing.''
Ladysmith reached out to youngsters again with the 1994 album ``Gift of the Tortoise: A Musical Journey Through Southern Africa,'' issued on the Warner Bros.-distributed label Music for Little People. The disc combined narration about the homeland with songs it gave birth to.
``That was wonderful when we bring all those poems together. A wonderful American person'' - co-producer Leib Ostrow - ``came over and asked Mambazo to do it, because sometimes when we perform we are asking the children on stage to sing with us. And that guy, he has an idea and love of the harmony.
``I work very much with the children because, you see, when we talk about music, we include the young ones, and then bigger than that, and older. Even the young ones, they love this music.''
Ladysmith's driving love of tradition was reinforced when two of Shabalala's sons, Thamsanqa and Sibongseni, joined after the 1993 departure of his brother Ben and Geoffrey Mdletshe. The subject made Shabalala, a father of nine, more effusive than he had been throughout the conversation.
``When we include my children? Oh, that's wonderful. It means we're passing from generation to generation. They are working with their father on passing on the culture. That's wonderful.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Graphic
Ladysmith recordings
Here are five albums that showcase the sound of Ladysmith Black
Mambazo:
Various artists, ``The Indestructible Beat of Soweto''
(Shanachie, 1986). The ground-breaking compilation that helped bring
South Africa's rich aural panorama to Americans. Ladysmith is heard
in the context of a wide cross-section of styles.
Paul Simon, ``Graceland'' (Warner Bros., 1986). Simon's leap into
South African music remains stunning a decade after its appearance.
His liner notes detail his collaborations with Joseph Shabalala and
Ladysmith.
``Classic Tracks'' (Shanachie, 1990). This disc collects 14
stellar performances, most never previously released in America.
Despite the lack of printed lyrical translations, it's a superb
introduction to the group.
``Gift of the Tortoise: A Musical Journey Through Southern
Africa'' (Music for Little People, 1994). Ladysmith's children's
album is a moving listening experience for adults, too.
``Liph' Iqiniso'' (Shanachie, 1994). Their most recent American
release carries on the string of exquisite Ladysmith works.
- Rickey Wright
KEYWORDS: PROFILE SINGERS MUSIC SOUTH
AFRICA by CNB