By Daniel Fryland

Ladysmith Black Mambazo filled Finney with a message of peace, love, and harmony as they performed their beautiful a capella compositions on Tuesday.  Joyous dancing accompanied warm vocal chords and rhythms before a captivated, packed audience.

I arrived at Finney Chapel early–but not early enough.  Along with a group of other students hoping to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo, I was turned away at the doors.  After some scrambling and begging, I managed to get inside just as Marvin Krislov took the stage following a short performance by students of Eastwood Elementary School.

President Krislov thanked the Eastwood students for their efforts to raise money for children in Haiti.  He then proceeded to “date himself,” by recommending that we “acquaint [ourselves] with Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s records.”  Since Joseph Shabalala formed the group in 1960, they have recorded more than 50 albums, as a group and in collaboration with others like Paul Simon and Josh Groban.

Finally, the nine current members of the band took the stage.  Joseph led the band into the first song, which had a call-and-response form with soft, sweet vocal harmonies that instantly awed the audience.  During the first song, Joseph gestured and danced while the rest of the band remained stoic.  As the performance went on, the band warmed up, and moved into choreographed dances.

Joseph Shabalala introduced his band, which started in 1964 when he had a dream in which he heard a choir singing the most beautiful chords he had ever heard.  Following this dream, he gathered together friends and family members and taught them the harmonies he had heard.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings isicathamiya music—the traditional music of the Zulu people.  The style is characterized by sweet, warm vocal harmonies with a high lead voice, accented by a percussive feel and vocal rolls.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings isicathamiya music—the traditional music of the Zulu people.  The style is characterized by sweet, warm vocal harmonies with a high lead voice, accented by a percussive feel and vocal rolls.

The band displayed powerful cohesion while on stage.  Besides the incredible precision of the harmonies and rhythm, the band’s dances nearly always involved some interplay between singers.  Often, a singer at one end of the stage would perform a dance move, which was subsequently repeated by each member of the band in order down the line.

Joseph explained the bond between members of the band by saying, “Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a family.  In my group, I have four sons—the future of Mambazo,” before introducing his youngest son, Thamsanqa Shabalala as the leader of the next few songs and stepping offstage.

The choir performed a capella and played endlessly with sound.  For a singer, one’s instrument is one’s own body.  Ladysmith Black Mambazo certainly understood this and manipulated their positioning as a way to alter and experiment with their sound.  During one song, the band stepped back from their microphones, their voices fading, until they were singing without amplification.  Then, as the band stepped forward again, their voices gradually crescendoed through the speakers, returning to their beginning volume.  Creating a similar swelling effect, the band also bowed low as they sang only to stand up straight again, jumping and kicking into the air.

Joseph came back on stage to introduce the next song and give us a translation of the words. “The following song says, ‘I miss the place I grew up.  The mountains are beautiful and the birds are singing sweet music,’” he said before stepping off stage again to let Thamsanqa lead.  In keeping with the mood of the lyrics, the song evoked a feeling of not-quite-mournful nostalgia and included bird calls from one of the band members.

During another song, the singers were all crouching and facing to their left, when the rightmost singer turned around and delivered an aggressive kiss to the cheek of the singer behind him—knocking his fellow performer over.  The mood was light, however, and Thamsanqa responded by half-singing, half-whispering “Hey guys, no kissing.  No kissing in the church.”

 

 

After this segment of the performance, the entire band stepped offstage briefly.  Joseph began the next song while offstage and then entered with the band as the song transitioned from the introduction to the main body of the song complete with playful, joyful dancing.  As the song came to an end, the band continued to dance, the energy having transcended the boundaries of the music.

Gradually, the dancing subsided, and Joseph began the next song, singing, “Come along, come along, come along to kiss me” in a voice full of yearning.  Gentle crescendos were reminiscent of waves gently receding and lightly breaking on the beach.  The song was overflowing with emotion, and the bass voices physically resonated in my chest.  I felt as if I were in Joseph’s dream in 1964—hearing the voices of a perfect choir.

Following this astounding performance was an intermission, during which the audience was encouraged to visit the merchandise table.  The audience took the opportunity to stretch out after sitting in Finney’s packed pews, and at the end of the intermission, the seating was much less cramped.  The intermission had been announced just at 8:30—the scheduled ending time of the event according to the posters.

However, one of the singers soon returned to discuss South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup this year, inviting the entire packed Finney to “stay with me.” He then surprised us by initiating a singing competition between the audience and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The audience willingly learned the song, and after several repetitions of the two short sections, the song ended with a sustained chord from the audience.

The playful nature of Ladysmith Black Mombazo continued, as they joked about whether or not the participation of women in the audience counted as cheating. They then continued with their set—including the band’s song “Homeless,” which was written and recorded in collaboration with Paul Simon.  As the song ended and the audience applauded, Joseph knelt down as if in prayer.  This humble expression brought forth the feelings of sorrow and suffering always present in the face of global poverty.

To raise our spirits after the sobering tone of “Homeless,”  the next song was powerfully upbeat and provided members of the band with an excuse to dance.  One at a time nearly every member of Ladysmith Black Mambazo stepped forward and danced until Joseph called for audience members to join the band on stage.  Several students and community members lept onto the stage, dancing in unison to the beat of the music and the rhythmic clapping of the audience.

After this song, Ladysmith Black Mambazo left the stage.  A long, intense standing ovation called one of the singers back to explain, “We are going to leave the stage.  The show is finished.” The audience, however, was not ready for the concert to end, and successfully called the entire ensemble back for one more song.  The song was introduced as the song that they will sing at the World Cup, and featured warm, gentle chords with a powerful bass.

This time, the concert truly had come to an end.  In parting, Joseph Shabalala called out, “We love you so much.  We will miss you.  Stay in peace, love, and harmony.”