“An enormous cultural treasure. A cultural gold mine.” In 1987, Paul Simon spoke to us about ‘Graceland’ and the enormous influence and talent of Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder Joseph Shabalala, who died on Monday
Paul Simon with fellow musicians from the Graceland tour at Ahoy in Rotterdam, Netherlands on February 1st 1987.was sweating bullets. Woefully under rehearsed, playing together onstage for the very first time, he and his twenty-four-memberensemble of black South African singers and musicians were about to make their concert debut, not under a sparkling, starlit African sky but amid the dreary concrete and steel of the Ahoy sports arena in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
“The people would not let us leave the stage,” says Masekela. On the second night in Rotterdam, he says, the audience gave the musicians a standing ovation after their stirring performance of the unofficial African national anthem, “N’Kosi Sikeleli” . “Then they started singing back to us: ‘oh-wey, oh-wey’ — like a football chant. We didn’t know what it meant, but it lasted about ten minutes. We were in shock. It was amazing.
“The show breaks even as long as I don’t get paid,” he explains. “Everybody gets paid and makes his or her money. I’m working essentially for free.” “It was exciting. That’s why we went to Africa. Because we thought it would be special. Can you imagine what it would be like if we were able to play in South Africa?”guitarist Ray Phiri, the leader of the top Soweto band Stimela, believes that the Zimbabwe shows were a minor victory in a greater battle. “It was the biggest high of my life,” he says. “But I knew my people would love it.
record and tour. “But we maintain that at the present moment in South Africa you cannot talk about artistic endeavors when people are dying.” Gbeho says there is no official UN position on black South Africans performing outside the country, as Ray Phiri and Ladysmith Black Mambazo are doing on thetour. But, he continues, “the whole idea of South Africans coming here to sing and therefore change the situation is one we do not think will solve the problem. If you look at the position taken in the recent whites-only election and the subsequent actions of the government there, it does not seem that singing out here makes any difference.
Phiri, who has been an active and successful bandleader, producer and sessionman in South Africa’s black music community for many years, adds that his participation onhas “opened up some gates for me that were not opened before with the white side of South Africa.” That is no small accomplishment in a country where black musicians have been victimized for years by the principally white-run record industry through poor management, inadequate legal advice and exploitative royalty deals.
“The whole thing about whether lyrics are political, whether the songs are political,” he says with a sigh, “it’s almost as if you can’t make a significant contribution unless you make things political. But I think we’ve made more of a contribution than anybody so far, and we didn’t do it that way. We did it another way.”on the road with Hugh Masekela last fall, he was certain of one thing: this would be no ordinary greatest-hits get-down.
Joseph Shabalala knows that feeling very well. As a teenager, he migrated from his home in the township of Ladysmith to the coastal city of Durban, where he sang with a local group called the Highlanders while working in a factory weaving cotton. In the mid-Sixties, after returning to Ladysmith, he formed Ladysmith Black Mambazo with several relatives and members of other families in the township.tour. “The way we arrange compositions, it all came from God.
But the miracle of Mambazo music is that it possesses an emotional resonance that transcends mere technique and choreography, not to mention language. Shabalala, an ordained minister with the pentecostal Church of God of Prophecy, insists he knows nothing of politics, politicians or cultural boycotts. “We sing for everybody,” he says. “Like when you preach, you must preach for everybody. So we just sing, all over. Nobody tells us, ‘You must be on this side.
Indeed, Shabalala tells a revealing story about an encounter he and the other Mambazos once had with the police in Johannesburg. “I remember there was a riot there,” he says. “People were fighting, the kids were fighting. But not Black Mambazo. The policeman ask us, ‘Where do you come from?’ I said we come from singing. They said, ‘You are singing while the people are fighting?’ I say, ‘Yes. They are doing their job. I am doing my job.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Mall merger: Simon is buying Beverly Center owner Taubman for $3.6 billionThe mall operators are combining as online shopping continues to devastate brick-and-mortar retail.
Read more »
Mall Operators Simon and Taubman Pair UpSimon Property Group is buying rival mall owner Taubman Centers, a $3.6 billion transaction that demonstrates how the world’s largest mall owner is pushing ahead with expansion despite headwinds in the industry
Read more »
Taubman Centers surges as rival Simon buys for $3.6 billion - Business InsiderTaubman shares spiked on the news it will be acquired, reversing a downward trend that had gripped the stock.
Read more »
Simon Property Group to buy Taubman Centers in $3.6 billion dealMall owner Simon Property Group on Monday announced plans to buy rival Taubman Centers in an all-cash deal the companies valued at about $3.6 billion.
Read more »
Simon Property Group to acquire Taubman Centers in all-cash deal valued at about $3.6 billionSimon Property Group Inc. said Monday it has entered an agreement to acquire mall REIT Taubman Centers Inc. in an all-case deal valued at about $3.6 billion....
Read more »
Power agent Rich Paul launching Klutch Conversations during NBA All-Star weekendRich Paul, the CEO of Klutch Sports Group, the agency that represents LeBron James, will launch a new venture called 'Klutch Conversations' this week during NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago.
Read more »