Albert Mazibuko views touring the United States as a chance to spread his culture even wider through dance and song.

Mazibuko has been a member of the Grammy Award-winning Ladysmith Black Mambazo for 36 years. The a cappella South African super group will perform at 7:30 p.m. March 17 at the Luther F. Carson Four Rivers Center. Tickets are $37, $21 and $16 at 450-4444.

“It’s very unique,” Mazibuko said of the group’s music. “I grew up in a singing family. This kind of music was sung a long time ago.”

The music is called “isicathaiya” which means “tip toe guys” because in the 19th century when South Africans worked in the diamond mines, they sang and danced on Saturday nights, at first dancing on tiptoes softly so mining camp security guards wouldn’t be disturbed, but ultimately dancing so intensely that floors of huts would be broken, according to the group’s biography.

Driven for many years in pursuit of a particular sweet harmony, singer Joseph Shabalala formed Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1974 and carried on the traditional music. The name comes from his hometown (Ladysmith), Black for black oxen which are regarded as strong in their culture, and Mambazo, which means “the axe” for the band’s ability to chop down its competition.

Shabalala began writing songs in other African languages and in English after the band’s songs were performed on Radio Zulu. Not until Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album recorded in Johannesburg in the 1980s was the band’s Zulu harmony heard beyond South Africa. That album stirred the music world and won the Grammy Award for album of the year in 1986.

“It was something,” Mazibuko said, recalling the work with Simon nearly 20 years ago. “Even now when I think about it, it’s almost like a dream.”

The group soon emerged as South Africa’s cultural ambassadors, recording with Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder and Julia Fordham, among many others. Their tunes were featured in Disney’s “The Lion King Part II” and Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America.” Their music also has been featured in commercials for Life Savers and 7-Up.

Initial attempts at recording the iconic “Homeless” with Simon didn’t go smoothly, Mazibuko recalled. After praying as a band, they met with Simon again and successfully recorded the song.

Besides “Homeless,” Ladysmith also recorded “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” on “Graceland.”

Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s first album on Warner Brothers’ “Shaka Zulu” won a Grammy, and the band has been nominated five times since.

They’ll sing some of their favorites, dance and talk with the audience for the Paducah show, Mazibuko said. “We sing. We talk. It’s a joy. We want to rejoice in our music. We’re all trying to live a positive life.”