|
|
 |
CD Review
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, CD Review >>
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
"Raise Your Spirit Higher"
Heads Up Records
How strange that Ladysmith Black Mambazo, whose intricate, rhythmic brand of male choral music has long stood as a symbol of black South Africa's traditional culture suppressed under apartheid, today achieves its largest audience when singing on American commercials for candy and soda pop.
That's not all the group is known for, of course. Its appearance on Paul Simon's 1986 album "Graceland" was a watershed event for world music in general and African music in particular.
The group has gone on to a string of successful albums that offer an incredible listening experience, even if you don't happen to speak Zulu.
"Raise Your Spirit Higher" is in large part a gospel album. Band leader Joseph Shabalala is a devout Christian and has worked his beliefs into many of Ladysmith's songs over the years.
The songs are unlike anything you'd hear in an American Christian church, coming in somewhere between gospel and the traditional isicathamiya style on which the group's sound is based.
Alongside the songs of praise are a celebration of post-apartheid South Africa, a cautionary tale about racism and even a song written for a safety campaign to encourage the use of seat belts.
Uniformly, these songs are more instructive and beautiful than listening to the group singing "Life Savers ... yum."
- Daniel Durchholz 01/29/04
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
