Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Ladysmith & Sweet Honey Last Night

So last night The ♥G♥ scooped me up after work and we went to Ravinia to see Sweet Honey in the Rock and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. My blog-slacking friend Glenn and his lovely wife met us there. While there, he managed to not only break off his corkscrew in a bottle of wine, but also the corkscrew belonging to the people (perfect strangers) sitting on a blanket next to us. Don't ask.

One (of many) of Paul Simon's great contributions to late-20th Century pop music was introducing LBM to the American audience at large, via his perfect album Graceland. He, David Byrne (who started a record label dedicated to world music) and Peter Gabriel (who started another record label dedicated to world music) are the three rock musicians (if they can be so easily classified as such) whom I think we have the most to thank for the popularization of world music in the U.S. in the last 10-15 years. There are a number of other labels that specialize in world music, such as Putumayo, Mondo Melodia, and World Village, all of which are worth the attention of the interested.

Back to LBM specifically, check out the great documentary LBM: On Tip Toe on DVD.

Here they are singing:

Here they are singing with Big Bird and company (and no, it's not "F the Police"):

1 Comments:

Blogger Wolf Flywheel said...

Love LBM! They were in a PBS documentary last year I think about the origins of the "In the Jungle" song. There was much learned about thier style of music from it's origins to it's current status in South Africa. My cousin livied in several locales in South Africa for a couple years in the late 80's and introduced me to this music when he got back. I still love the soundtrack from "The Power of One". Great music and a pretty good film displaying the plight of all people in South Africa in the 40's and 50's.

7:58 AM  

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