Always with Us

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Always With Us
Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Always With Us.jpg
Studio album by
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
ReleasedJanuary 15, 2014 (2014-01-15)
Recorded2000,10-2012 KZM Music House in Durban, Club Shmed in Missoula and East Hall in Arkansas while touring
Length35:00
LabelLadysmith Black Mambazo
Producer
Martin Walters
Joseph Shabalala
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ladysmith Black Mambazo chronology

(2013) 		Always With Us
(2014)
(2014)

Always With Us is a 2014 album by the South African isicathamiya group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The album, released on 15 January 2014, is a tribute to the life of the group's matriarch Nellie Shabalala (1953-2002), the late wife of Mambazo leader Joseph Shabalala. It is also only the second album in the group's 50-year career to feature female Zulu vocalists singing alongside the male members.[1]

Background[]

Joseph Shabalala was married to Nellie for thirty years. During that time, Nellie became a supportive matriarch of her husband's group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.[2] In 1976, the Shabalalas became Christians and joined the Church of God of Prophecy. Nellie began singing with other female churchgoers and eventually formed her own choir, which she later named .[3]

In early 2000, Nellie and Women of Mambazo made their first studio album in a South African recording studio.[2] In October 2001, Women of Mambazo supported Ladysmith Black Mambazo on a 30-date tour of the United Kingdom. In May 2002, before Women of Mambazo could build a name for itself, Nellie was brutally murdered by a masked gunman, and the recordings of Zulu church music that she had made with her group in the studio in 2000 remained unreleased for many years.

Production[]

The members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo had long desired to create a lasting memorial to Nellie's memory.[4] In 2010, the opportunity finally arose and the group decided to mix together their own voices with the unreleased recordings Nellie made with Women of Mambazo in 2000.[2] Work on the album project began in 2010, but it became technically very difficult to mix Mambazo's newly recorded vocals with Nellie's archive recordings in a seamless manner. As a result, the album took three years to complete.[1] Upon its eventual release in early 2014, Always With Us garnered positive reviews, noting a "bittersweet" and "emotional" nature to the album's ten songs.[4]

Track listing[]

  1. "Usasheba" - 3:37
  2. "Wozanawe" - 3:46
  3. "Izembe Mfana" - 3:06
  4. "Nginomhlobo" - 3:18
  5. "Fikile" - 3:14
  6. "Amen" - 3:42
  7. "Nant' Ivangeli" - 3:55
  8. "Mamizolo" - 3:25
  9. "Yimalapha" - 3:34
  10. "No More Sorrow" - 3:30

Personnel[]

Details on the participants on Always With Us are from the album's liner notes.[2]

Technical personnel[]

  • Joseph Shabalala - composer
  • and Martin Walters - production
  • Joseph Shabalala and Ladysmith Black Mambazo - executive production
  • Martin Walters - engineering, mixing and mastering
  • - photography
  • - design

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Ladysmith Black Mambazo Announces New Album". Broadway World. 15 November 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Goldstein, Mitch (2014). In Always With Us [CD booklet]. Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
  3. ^ Shabalala, Joseph (2003). In Mamizolo [CD booklet]. Johannesburg: Gallo Record Company.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Ladysmith Black Mambazo still moving forward". The Boston Globe. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
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