PORT ANGELES — The white tennis shoes are key.
They allow the men’s feet to be seen, not heard, as they dance across states, countries and continents — and straight into the heart of the listener.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African a cappella ensemble, has performed to sold-out crowds at Carnegie Hall, given concerts for Queen Elizabeth II, the late Pope John Paul II and for Nelson Mandela when he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
The group also has sung here, most recently in 2008, when Mambazo drew some 1,100 fans to the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center.
On the heels of their new CD, “Songs from a Zulu Farm,” the nine men of Mambazo are on tour and returning to Port Angeles for a Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts presentation Tuesday night. The group will take the stage of the Port Angeles High auditorium, 304 E. Park Ave., at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets range from $25 for general admission to $30 for reserved seating for adults, while tickets for youth 12 and younger are $17 for general seating and $20 for reserved. Outlets include the Juan de Fuca website, www.JFFA.org, Port Book and News, 104 E. First St., Port Angeles, and Pacific Mist Books, 121 W. Washington St., Sequim.
Joseph Shabalala formed Mambazo some five decades ago, and invited his cousin Albert Mazibuko to go traveling with him, spreading the music of their native South Africa.
Big names
The group has since crisscrossed the world, recording with Paul Simon, whose “Graceland” album in 1986 brought Mambazo to fame, and performing with pop artists from Stevie Wonder to Emmylou Harris.
Today, Mambazo includes younger members of the Shabalala family: Thami, Thulani, Sibon and Msizi.
The men range in age from their 20s to Joseph’s 72, said Mazibuko, the group’s spokesman.
“The younger guys are going to carry it forward,” he added.
Mazibuko gave one of his countless interviews last Saturday soon after arriving in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a show at the Performing Arts Center there. Mambazo had just come down from Canada, where the singers gave concerts in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, and five other cities in the province.
“I love touring. Being on tour makes life exciting,” Mazibuko, 64, said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen . . . and it lets me escape the duties I have at home,” he joked.
Mazibuko lives in South Africa, in a city about two hours from the farming community where he grew up. He learned to sing from his grandmother, who told him stories and sang him songs to help him fall asleep at night.
Now, Mazibuko is helping to raise his own grandson. The little boy is a dancer, of course.
Traditional blend
On Mambazo’s current eight-week tour, the group offers its traditional blend of songs in Zulu and English: songs that sound like prayer, like gospel and like South Africa.
This time, Mazibuko adds, “we tell more stories about our songs. I love the way we chose the songs. They are about our struggle,” out of apartheid and toward freedom.
“We are celebrating, every night, our achievement in South Africa.”
Songs such as “Homeless” and “Hello My Baby” may mix with “Zulu Laduma” (Voices Like Thunder), “Ixegezi” (Catch the Bird) and “Vuka” (Wake Up Little Chicks) from the “Zulu Farm” album.
In a Mambazo concert, “it’s not necessary to understand the lyrics,” Mazibuko has said. “Just listen to the feeling, the feeling you get in the music. The music is something for the soul. It has its own language.”
Invitation
He extended an invitation to Tuesday’s concert:
“Nine guys will line up, with white shoes and colorful shirts,” he said, “and beautiful voices.” They will sing, step and extend their hands, and then teach the audience how to greet one another in Zulu.
“There will be vibrant dancing,” Mazibuko promised. “When you leave, you will feel different. If you come cold, you will be warm. If you come depressed, you will leave uplifted.”
