Four-time Grammy winning South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo have joined forces with a Nigerian gospel band called Beulah Quartet to record their next album.
Beulah Quartet (Facebook)
The Beulah Quartet was established in Lagos in 2008 and their music is inspired by the South African sounds of Isicathamiya, the genre Ladysmith Black Mambazo is renowned for. According to Udoh Jeremiah of Beulah Quartet –
The uniqueness and the style of their music its actually different from the kind of music we hear in our days and it’s just so unique and cool and we are actually on that line of a capella.
The Beulah Quartet worked with veteran musician Joseph Shabalala and his team in producing 6 of the 12 songs on the new album, but it wasn’t always easy getting the Lagos group to understand and sing in isiZulu (modern Zulu blended with English). According to the South African group’s producer Godfrey Nzuza –
I would like to praise them for they have done and for the strides they have taken because they come from another native language which is a million miles away from the Zulu that they are singing and to them they deemed it fit to come all the way to learn from the legend that Shabalala is
The band will be launching their album on May 25, watch one of their performances below.
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