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Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo · This is a meeting between an American singer and a South African choir. In 1986 Paul Simon recorded the album Graceland, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo sang on it. For the group it meant their international breakthrough. Their male voices can be heard in Homeless, the song the course cites.
Music and breakthrough
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male choir that sings the South African styles isicathamiya and mbube. Joseph Shabalala founded the first group in December 1960, with relatives he knew from the farm where he grew up. In 1964, for half a year, he had the same dream again and again of a choir singing in perfect harmony. He re-formed the group with younger relatives and taught them those harmonies. The result included the song Nomathemba. The group took part in Saturday-night competitions in the hostels of Durban and Johannesburg and won almost everything. After that Shabalala changed the name. Ladysmith is his family's home town, the black ox is regarded as the strongest farm animal, and mambazo is the Zulu word for axe, an image for cutting down the competition. In the early 1970s the choir was no longer allowed to enter the competitions, because it kept winning. It did continue to perform, and from 1967 it was heard on the radio. In 1972 it signed with the Gallo Record Company.
Influence
After Graceland the group won several awards, including five Grammys. The sound is soft, full and based on voices alone. It shows how a West African or South African tradition reached world pop through a collaboration with a well-known pop artist.
Listening
Homeless · Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo, 1986