REVIEW Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Songs from a Zulu Farm

Monday January 31, 2011

from WorldMusic.co.uk
By Glyn Phillips

Ladysmith Black Mambazo:Songs From a Zulu Farm
CD Review

“undulating rhythmic phrases that push and pull … harmonising that is both ethereal and earthy”

Africa’s most famous choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo maintain their international reputation for vocal excellence with this latest album: “Songs From a Zulu Farm” (released 7th February 2011 in UK).

It is possibly their most personal album to date, as the group’s founder Joseph Shabalala takes us back to the farms and natural world of his childhood to sing songs learned at his grandparents’ knees in the KwaZulu-Natal of the 40s and 50s – “a world of innocence of joy”.

If you’re already familiar with LBM (and it’s hard to imagine anyone either within the world music scene or even in the mainstream that hasn’t heard their music at some point over the last 50 years) then you’ll know what to expect and you won’t be disappointed.

If you’re young enough not to have heard them then you can look forward to rich traditional Zulu songs, lush harmonies, breathy vocals, clicks and whirs and zummms and that peculiar ability that Ladysmith Black Mambazo possess – to transport your spirit to the hills and plains of South Africa.

Read the full article here

Zulu Laduma	3:02	Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Thalaza	4:00	Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ixegezi	2:12	Ladysmith Black Mambazo

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