Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Best Of & The Ultimate Collection & The Chillout Sessions (1992-2002)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a South African male choral group that sings in the vocal styles of isicathamiya and mbube. They rose to worldwide prominence as a result of singing with Paul Simon on his 1986 album Graceland, and have won multiple awards, including four Grammy Awards. They were formed by Joseph Shabalala in 1960 and later became one of South Africa's most prolific recording artists, with their releases receiving gold and platinum disc honors. The group has now become a mobile academy, teaching people about South Africa and its culture.

Whether they are singing hymns or secular songs, Ladysmith Black Mambazo always raise their voices in glorious harmony. They are the unmatched masters of the South African a cappella form known as isicathamiya or mbube, and this CD demonstrates their vocal prowess. The Zulu songs are ornamented by trills, yips, humming, and tra-la-las and punctuated by the rhythmic clicks that are particular to the language. The English-language songs instruct and advise on the fine moral points of human relationships. While the mbube song form lends a certain similarity to the pieces, this group is so good that the music never seems redundant, and the generous selection of 16 songs seems to go by too quickly. --Jeff Grubb

An overview of the career of Ladysmith Black Mambazo that far outdoes other compilations available (most notable of which is Shanachie's Classic Tracks). This album covers a good deal of ground, with a good deal of guest stars throughout. It starts out with a few of the basic tracks from Ladysmith: a congratulation to South Africa after the end of apartheid, "The Star and the Wiseman" ("Inkanyezi Nezazi"), which brought the group some fame in the U.K., and a song dealing with the Zulu culture. As the album progresses, Ladysmith performs a spiritual alongside China Black in "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and a rendition of Bob Dylan's "Knockin on Heaven's Door" with Dolly Parton (yes, you read correctly). Along with this is "Homeless," a number originally done with Paul Simon (but without him here), and a pair of nice tracks from the Chillout Sessions remixed into ambient works by Marc Woolford's Soul Drummers. In the second album, they feature both a song with Paul Simon ("Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes") and a song in tribute of him ("New York City") for his work in exposing the Western world to their style of singing. Also featured is the original mbube, which was eventually turned into "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in the U.S. British R&B diva Des'ree performs the old Bill Withers hit "Ain't No Sunshine" with Ladysmith, and Lou Rawls does Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" with them a few songs later. The Rugby Cup's theme from 1995 is presented, along with a number of various tracks, eventually leading to some gospel (Joseph Shabalala's favorite genre to work in) in combination with the Heritage Gospel Choir on "Oh Happy Day." Overall, at 34 tracks, this stands as the longest compilation of Ladysmith tunes, and more importantly, it stands as the most comprehensive, showing off the highlights from each era of a long career for the band, with any number of highlights performed in conjunction with other performers thrown in for good measure. For the newcomer to the sounds of Ladysmith, this makes the perfect introduction thanks to its incredible breadth; for the collector, it provides a number of rarities that are more difficult to find otherwise.

The voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo embody soul and spirituality and they're regarded as South Africa's cultural emissaries. They've released 40 albums and have recorded with numerous artists, most famously collaborating with Paul Simon on the landmark "Graceland" album. They've also worked with Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, The Wynans, Julia Fordham, George Clinton, Russell Watson, Ben Harper, Des'Re, and others, and they provided soundtrack material for Disney's "The Lion King Part II" as well as Eddie Murphy's "Coming To America". "Inkanyezi Nezazi" was used in a Heinz ad that once again brought this group to prominence. "The Chillout Sessions" marks the first time their captivating a cappella singing has been remixed with beats.