Jazz Articles about Ladysmith Black Mambazo

like

Somi: Zenzile: The Reimagination Of Miriam Makeba

by Angelo Leonardi
March 21, 2022

Il legame musicale e simbolico con l'Africa resta centrale nella produzione artistica di Somi, la vocalist e cantautrice statunitense dai genitori africani giunta al successo con gli album The Lagos Music Saloon e Holy Room. Il suo nuovo progetto è dedicato a Miriam Makeba, che avrebbe compiuto 90 anni il 4 marzo, data di pubblicazione del presente album. I brani in scaletta, tutti presi dallo storico repertorio della cantante, sono condivisi col musical Dreaming Zenzile, che Somi ...

like 356

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Live!

by Woodrow Wilkins
January 29, 2009

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Live! Heads Up International 2009

Music is, for all intents and purposes, a listening experience--one that is enhanced when accompanied by something visual. The South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo delivers visually as well as aurally with Live!, a concert DVD recorded in 2008 at E.J. Thomas Hall at the University of Akron (Ohio).Ladysmith gets that part of its name from the South African town where ...

like 155

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Long Walk to Freedom

by Woodrow Wilkins
March 30, 2006

It's fitting that the third track of Ladysmith Black Mambazo's Long Walk to Freedom was co-written by Joseph Shabala, the group's lead singer, founder and musical director, and American pop star Paul Simon. About twenty years ago, Simon introduced this South African group to the pop world on Graceland. With Emmylou Harris providing a Simon-like lead vocal, the group does honor to “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, which Ladysmith recorded with Simon for Graceland. Joe McBride, referred to ...

like 337

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Long Walk to Freedom

by Jim Santella
January 21, 2006

The vocal call and response of Ladysmith Black Mambazo traces our world's civilizations from the very beginning. As a form of communication, singing has accompanied the advancement of societies far and wide. Our ancestors undoubtedly found it as pleasurable as we do. With a cappella singing providing a natural delight that cannot be replaced by modern technology, Joseph Shabala and company deliver a series of timeless messages that grab at your soul.

Except for “Mbube, colored in different ...

like 134

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: No Boundaries

by C. Michael Bailey
March 22, 2005

Sonically stunning, No Boundaries is a brave experiment in the dissolution of one culture in another that is only modestly successful. Ladysmith alone or the English Chamber Orchestra alone would work well, but more often than not, together they are unconvincing, a genre stretching effort (ill) conceived in the boardroom and not the studio. Where the listener would hope for a eutectoid relationship like that between jazz and Latin music, South African and European traditions create a micelle association with ...

like 130

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: No Boundaries

by Woodrow Wilkins
February 24, 2005

Musicians are known to have a “voice"?--a distinctive sound or style of playing that sets them apart from others. Even if you haven't heard the song or been given any kind of heads up about a new recording, it doesn't take long for you to figure out who is performing. That is especially true of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African vocalists who are as comfortable a cappella as they are with accompaniment. Recent winners of the Grammy award for ...

like 210

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: No Boundaries

by Jim Santella
January 18, 2005

Accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra, Ladysmith Black Mambazo combines classical European pieces with the traditional music of their South African homeland on one program. The well-known vocal ensemble finds that both areas of music fit together well when they're doing the interpreting.

“Amazing Grace" is presented in English. The arrangement contains a lustrous African interlude in which the vocal ensemble's traditional spirit soars. They sing in their native language as well as in the classical Latin tongue. ...