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Times Herald Record , Concert Preview >>
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
By Steve Israel
Times Herald-Record
sisrael@th-record.com
Joking with Jay Leno last week was a blast.
Boogying with Ellen DeGeneres the next day was a groove.
And recording with Paul Simon ("Graceland") and sharing a stage with stars such as Paul McCartney during the past few decades has been "like a gift from God."
But for one longtime member of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, which appears at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill Sunday, nothing will ever compare to the vocal group's greatest achievement: helping break the centuries-old chains of apartheid in South Africa.
"That," says Albert Mazibuko, "was the power of our music."
Less than 20 years ago in South Africa, a black person needed a permit to travel from one town to another. But Ladysmith Black Mambazo had something more powerful than paper. The group that sang a new version of the old music of men who worked the mines of South Africa had the heavenly harmonies of their voices.
So when they would arrive in a new town and the police would ask for a permit they didn't have, Ladysmith Black Mambazo would start singing. Softly at first. And as their voices floated and mingled like soft clouds in the blue sky, the vocal textures would grow louder and thicker, until they formed a musical heaven of hope.
"Wow," Mazibuko recalls the police saying. "That is beautiful."
And then the police would let Ladysmith Black Mambazo into a new town, where the group would sing its songs of hope and freedom for black audiences.
One day, a big-city magistrate who heard Ladysmith Black Mambazo told the group that what they were doing was so beautiful, they should sing throughout the country - without permits.
"We were the first blacks to go everywhere," says Mazibuko, who's been with the Grammy Award-winning group since 1969. Then he uses a phrase he repeats several times during his interview with the Times Herald-Record: "That was the power of our music."
That music reached black men and women behind bars and in exile - men and women like Nelson Mandela, the South African leader who was imprisoned for fighting against apartheid. You see, Ladysmith Black Mambazo's lyrics encouraged blacks to stay together, to fight for their freedom. And most white people didn't even know what they were singing.
"Because we sang in our language, Zulu," says Mazibuko.
And when Ladysmith Black Mambazo finally met Mandela at his inauguration as the first black president of South Africa, the Nobel Peace Prize-winner told them something that will forever mean more than appearing on TV or singing with rock stars:
"Your music gave me hope when I was in prison."
If you Go! ...
What: Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Where: Paramount Center for the Arts, 1008 Brown St., Peekskill When: 3 p.m. Feb. 5 Tickets: $30-$35 Call: 877-840-0457 Visit: www.paramountcenter.org 02/03/06 >> go there
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