Song of the day – Feb.25
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African singing group, entered my life in grand style through the speakers of my father’s Mazda, where Paul Simon’s Graceland cassette-tape was on heavy rotation for most of my childhood.
The group with the crazy evocative name (But why is the man called Lady, Daddy?) was my first introduction to acapella music and to languages that click. I remember just sitting there, awash in the back seat’s burgundy upholstery, positively transfixed by the men’s interweaving voices and curious stylings, prefiguring a lifelong enthusiasm for impossibly foreign languages.
They have just won their third Grammy this month (for best Traditional World Music Album) and that is jolly good. All of their songs give me shivers and goosebumps up and down my adult arms.