South African group comes to Hawaii Theatre
BY GARY CHUN / gchun@staradvertiser.com
For Albert Mazibuko, being a member of South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been a journey rich with discovery. And it’s one that was all started with a prescient dream from its founder and leader Joseph Shabalala.
The vocal group from the township of Ladysmith has been an international force, particularly since 1986, when Paul Simon featured the men on his “Graceland” album. On the songs “Homeless” and “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo not only brought their heavenly harmonies to Simon’s music, but showed off their charismatic performance and dancing skills to a much larger audience than the group could’ve possibly imagined when they appeared with Simon in concert and on television.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo have steadily toured the world over for many years since then, and the group ends a mini-Hawaii tour Friday night here at the Hawaii Theatre.
Speaking from the group’s Maui tour stop on Tuesday, Mazibuko relates how far Shabalala and company have come, while never straying too far from their homeland, at least in spirit.
He said that “Joseph dreamt that his grandmother — who was my grandfather’s sister — told him to go to his brothers and they will help you. (In our culture, we call each other brother and sister, even though we are related as cousins.) … He heard voices blending in a very nice way, something new to our traditional ways. He learned a lot from the dream, and wanted to implement it in Ladysmith Black Mambazo. He tried to teach it to the rest of the group, but some found the new harmonies and melodies too difficult.”
When Shabalala approached Mazibuko to join the group, “I was so excited. I remember the day. He came to me in the mid-morning, and taught me two songs to practice. After work, we would all get together and learn to sing and perform these new songs, usually until midnight.”
Ladysmith Black Mambazo still keep in touch with the man who basically introduced them to the world. And Mazibuko remembers the thrill of the group first working with Paul Simon.
“It was a very happy and challenging time for us,” he said. “There was some mixed feelings at first, but bottom line, it was wonderful.
“We knew of his music — we would hear his ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ on the radio — so when the phone call came that Paul Simon wanted to meet Joseph and work with us, we were excited but a little confused about what was he looking for from us.
“He sent us a demo of his playing ‘Homeless’ on the piano, and we immediately took to the lyrics, ‘We are homeless, we are homeless, the moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake.’ So we worked around the idea and expanded on it because the song, at the time, had special meaning to us because there were people sleeping on the mountain in our township, away from their home villages.
“Paul Simon brought us to London to record, and I remember the first day that we tried to record the song, because it didn’t work — because so many were trying to help with their own ideas that it got confusing. So we regrouped over dinner at out hotel, and later prayed as a group and worked on it some more. The next day in the studio, we told Paul that we’ve been practicing and sang him what we came up with. He said it was wonderful, and in two hours’ time recording, ‘Homeless’ was done.”
With the group still in demand as a well-received touring act, Mazibuko said “I’m always missing home so much, but it’s balanced by the joy and satisfaction we bring when performing and spreading our culture to others. It fulfills our mission. But it’s always good to go back home and be with loved ones.”
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Listen to song clips and see photos and video of Ladysmith Black Mambazo at the group’s website: www.mambazo.com. A longer version of this article will appear in Friday’s edition of TGIF.
