I first saw Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Radio City Music Hall in New York in the late 1980s with Paul Simon’s Graceland tour (which also included Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba). The following night I saw these guys at S.O.B.s, sitting about 10 feet from the stage. I still get goose bumps thinking about the waves of energy that emanated from that stage.
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From the http://www.mambazo.com/ website: “Ladysmith Black Mambazo represents the traditional culture of South Africa and is regarded as the country’s cultural emissary at home and around the world. In 1993, at Nelson Mandela’s request, Ladysmith Black Mambazo accompanied the future President to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Mambazo sang again at President Mandela’s inauguration in May of 1994. They are a national treasure of the new South Africa in part because they embody the traditions suppressed in the old South Africa.”