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All Reviews >>

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu Heads Up, 2008

After Africa’s most celebrated a capella group became world superstars grace à Paul Simon in 1986, they produced a string of beautiful releases showcasing their signature sound—rhythmic purring, cooing, bubbling, hissing and occasionally stomping, all rendered with silky smooth, perfectly blended male voices. Recently, Ladysmith has been mixing it up collaborating with pop singers and even orchestral backing. So sonically, this release is a return to form, twelve a capella pieces all in keeping with the group’s classic sound.

The album is a tribute to the 19^th century Zulu warlord, Shaka Zulu, who remains a figure of transcendent symbolic power far beyond the ranks of the Zulu. The song praising him here, the reverential “Kuyafundw’ Osizini (Ilembe),” bypasses Shaka’s bloody deeds and focuses on his occult knowledge and his gifts from God. The ever elastic Zulu icon emerges as a champion of “our traditional music.” Such is the world of Ladysmith Black Mambazo where Jesus Christ and the Zulu King—Christianity and African tradition—cohabit harmoniously. One of two songs sung in English here “Prince of Peace,” is an entreaty to prayer, and a hymn to patience and balance. The other, “This is the Way We Do,” is a playful love song. Elsewhere, we have advice to youth, praise of elders, and rejections of jealousy and witchcraft.

Ladysmith have always spoken as wise elders, but having made records since the 1970s, they now fully inhabit that role. From the first soothing notes of “O Mmu Beno Mmu,” we feel the embrace of age and experience. Their gentle songs still deliver a mighty, if understated, swing, filled with echoes of jazz, jubilee choirs of old, and august Zulu tradition. If no new ground is broken here, Ladysmith Black Mambazo come through with a new set of songs that will sit well on the shelf alongside the best releases of their vast catalogue.