Ladysmith Black MambazoI watched a mini-concert by this a capello group from South Africa last night on PBS, and have been thinking about them ever since. From what I can see of this youtube video, what they do isn't really captured on it. The viewer really needs to see the whole of them to appreciate what's going on, and the camera tends to focus on the lead alone.
Commercially-speaking, you might remember them as the back-up vocal group on Paul Simon's "Graceland" album. (Hard to believe that album is over 20 years old now!) But they had already been established for 20-25 years upon Paul Simon's featuring of them. The Shabalala family has been singing for 45 years now.
The story goes ... that Joseph Shabalala dreamed the kind of singing which was then brought forth in LBM. It's called isicathamiya and mbube, or, as it is called among the zulus:
tiptoe singing. Tiptoe singing is very soft and quiet and was sung in the mines where they worked ... mbube is the lion.
I'm barely qualified to write about this group, because what they do is quite complex. Their timings are composed of aspects like 5/4 and 7/4 juxtaposed to 4/4, and the dancing is all part of it. I can tell you, from my primitive travels with music, that it's difficult enough to sing and play an instrument at the same time on the stage --- but to dance and sing ... and to dance a timing that isn't even being sung ... is mind-blowing. It's beyond "ambidextrous" .. .
LBM sang only locally in South Africa prior to "Graceland": after Graceland, their acclaim became international. They've won many awards and perform around the world. They were involved with nelson mandela upon his release. They have political overtones. They have troubles ... one of the members was murdered in a racial altercation by a white security guard, and apparently, that has never been resolved.
Understanding of them is understanding of the culture -- another area about which I'm not qualified.
But my awe of them is rightful and well-founded!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladysmith_Black_MambazoOn Isicathamiya:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IsicathamiyaOn Mbube:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbube_%28genre%29
