“Sometimes when we go to a place and we say this is our first time, people say to us ‘welcome back;' so I must say I have no idea for sure,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh, in a telephone interview early this week with the Missoulian.
“We've been moving around so much over many, many years, it is sometimes hard to keep all of the places in our minds.”
Mazibuko is one of the founding members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African choir that has come to define the sounds of traditional African music for an entire generation of people in America and elsewhere. Introduced to listeners in this country via Paul Simon's 1986 smash hit album, “Graceland” - on which they played a prominent role in the songs “Homeless” and “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” - the tightly harmonized group has since appeared on “Sesame Street,” in commercials for Life Savers candy, on the soundtracks of “The Lion King” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” and in recordings with other giants of American music, including Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder and Ben Harper.
They've performed for the Queen of England, and at the Nobel ceremony when Nelson Mandela was given the Peace Prize. They've won Grammy Awards; and a documentary film about the group was nominated for an Academy Award.
But the story of Ladysmith Black Mambazo began long before Paul Simon came along, before those international successes, in the impoverished farmlands of Ladysmith, a rural community in South Africa.
There, in the early 1960s, a man named Joseph Shabalala founded a singing group along with several of his family members (including Mazibuko, a cousin) after having a series of dreams about a perfectly harmonized choral group singing the traditional Zulu “isicathamiya” music.
The group went on to compete in local isicathamiya competitions over the course of nine years, until they were eventually banned - for being too good. In 1973 the group released its first album; soon Ladysmith Black Mambazo was known throughout the country - at least among Apartheid-oppressed blacks, who saw the group as a beacon of hope in a society of injustice.
“I think most people don't know that we existed a long time before we met Paul Simon,” said Mazibuko. “When we met him, we had 25 albums already and had been very famous around southern Africa. But it was a dream come true to meet (Simon) because he introduced us to the world, to people who didn't even know about the music of South Africa.”
That music, as purveyed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, draws on a gloriously rich tradition of dense, multipart male harmonizing, utilizing complex rhythms and modal melodies that lend the songs an exotic yet gorgeous character.
But it is not simply the songs that Ladysmith sings that have drawn an international following to the group. It is also the spirit that flows out of the eight singers as they perform.
One doesn't simply hear Ladysmith perform; the experience is something closer to communing with the group. That, said Mazibuko, is entirely intentional.
“We grew up in the farm, where the tradition was sharing everything,” said Mazibuko. “That's what helps us a lot. ... Every time when we would go for rehearsals, even from the beginning, we would start by praying and then singing and sharing ideas and happiness. We just laugh about everything.”
Back during the days of Apartheid, that positive vibe wasn't always appreciated by audiences, noted Mazibuko.
“Sometimes the people said, “Why are you so happy when there is so much to be angry about in the world?” recalled Mazibuko. “We met so many people who were angry, and we said, ‘That invites that angriness into reality.' We say, if we start now to be living happy, the happiness will follow us and create itself. Let's open the door to invite the happiness into our lives, and it will come gladly.”
That belief has ultimately proved itself through the success of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Looking back on his career with the group, Mazibuko said he realizes he has lived something of a charmed life.
“Music is the same everywhere: It's to make people stronger and happy, to try to lift people's souls and give them joy,” said Mazibuko. “I am very happy I have been able to spend my life doing that.”
Reach Joe Nickell at 523-5358 or at jnickell@missoulian.com.
Preview
Ladysmith Black Mambazo will perform at the University Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 18, at 8 p.m. Tickets are available from GrizTix outlets (including Griztix.com) for $31 in advance, $33 on the day of the show.
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