Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder dies

MULTI Grammy award-winning Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder Joseph Shabalala has died. The news broke this morning after it was reported that he died at a hospital in Pretoria. He was 78 years old.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a South African male choral group singing in the local vocal styles of isicathamiya and mbube.  The internationally known South African underwent spine surgery in 2017 and had been struggling with his health for some time.

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South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo was assembled in the early 1960s by Joseph Shabalala who at the time was a young farmboy turned factory worker. According to the group’s website, Shabalala took the name Ladysmith from his hometown.

On their website they go on to say: “The word Black, being a reference to the oxen, the strongest of all farm animals, was Joseph’s way of honoring his early life on his family’s farm. Mambazo is the Zulu word for chopping axe, a symbol of the group’s vocal strength, clearing the way for their music and eventual success.”

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In the mid-1980s, the American singer/songwriter Paul Simon famously visited South Africa and incorporated the group harmonies into his famous Graceland album – a landmark recording that was considered seminal in introducing world music to mainstream audiences.

A year later, Paul Simon produced Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s first worldwide release, Shaka Zulu, which garnered the group their first Grammy Award.  Since then the group has been awarded three more Grammy Awards; Raise Your Spirit Higher (2004), Ilembe (2009) and Singing For Peace Around The World (2013) as well as 19 Grammy Award nominations, more than any other world music group in the history of the Awards.

In addition to their work with Paul Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has recorded with numerous artists from around the world, including Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban, Emmylou Harris, Melissa Etheridge and many many others.

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Their singing voices can be heard in several films including Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker video and Spike Lee’s Do It A Cappella. They’ve provided soundtrack material for Disney’s The Lion King, Part II, Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America, Marlon Brando’s A Dry White Season, Sean Connery’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, James Earl Jones’ Cry The Beloved Country and Clint Eaastwood’s Invictus.

In 2014 founder, Joseph Shabalala, retired after over 50 years of leading his group.