Star & Wiseman

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