WUWF Presents Ladysmith Black Mambazo
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 21, 2014
Mattie Kelly Arts Center in Niceville
Tickets on sale now:
Purchase Online or at 850 729-6000
Listen: Ladysmith Speaks with Sandra Averhart
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, led by founder and leader Joseph Shabalala, celebrated fifty years of making joyous and uplifting music in 2013. Their sound marries the intricate rhythms and harmonies of their native South African musical traditions to the sounds and sentiments of Western gospel music. Their musical efforts over the past five decades have garnered praise and accolades within the recording industry and solidified their identity as a worldwide cultural force.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo borrows heavily from a traditional music called isicathamiya, which developed in the mines of South Africa where black workers were taken by rail to work far away from their homes and their families.
In 1986, Paul Simon visited South Africa and incorporated Black Mambazo’s rich harmonies into his Graceland album, a landmark recording in the world music genre. A year later, Simon produced Black Mambazo’s first U.S. release, Shaka Zulu, which won a Grammy Award. Since then, the group has been awarded two more Grammy Awards and has been nominated a total of fifteen times.