Vusi Mahlasela - Guiding Star
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CD Details
Artist: Vusi MahlaselaEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Music Label: ATO Records
Soundtracks:
- Jabula
- Heaven in My Heart [featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
- Moleko
- Chamber of Justice [featuring Xavier Rudd]
- Tibidi Waka [featuring Derek Trucks]
- Everytime [featuring Jem]
- Sower of Words [featuring Dave Matthews]
- Ntombi Mbali
- River Jordan
- Song for Thandi
- Mighty River
- Thula Mama
- Our Sand
- Tonti
- Susana
- Pata Pata (Bonus track)
Music reviews of Guiding Star
Music Review: Shining Star
Rating: 5 Stars
Vusi Mahlasela is known as "The Voice" in South Africa,but he's a masterful guitarist as well. Mahlasela has been busy lately-from touring in support of this album,to being part of Putumayo World Music's "Acoustic Africa" tour,and performing at the Johannesburg venue of Live Earth on 7/7/07. He's an electrifying singer. I first heard him on Putumayo's "Acoustic Africa",singing the lilting,lullabye-like "Basimyana."
His "Guiding Star" is a haunting collection of songs,many of them about the suffering under apartheid. His "Chamber of Justice" is a haunting reggae-styled song about the nature of good and evil. "Sower of Words",a touching duet with Dave Matthews,is a tribute to a South African poet who stood up to apartheid. Dave Matthews,whose voice usually grates cheese,provides a soft,thoughtful accompaniment. "Song for Thandi" is about a pregnant woman persecuted during apartheid who was nearly forced to kill herself--but chose life because of the life within her. There are deeply spiritual songs such as "River Jordan","Heaven in my Heart" and "Thula Mama." There are great collaborations with Derek Trucks&the Welsh singer-songwriter Jem.The bonus track,a cover of Miriam Makeba's "Pata Pata",is a joyous dance song that catches the spirit of the original. Warning:this song may cause toe-tapping.
As a whole,"Guiding Star" is a brilliant combination of electrifying acoustic guitar playing and powerful singing. Dave Matthews rightly compares Vusi Mahlasela to Neil Young,Bob Marley,Miles Davis&Marvin Gaye. The album is great music for great causes-a portion of the proceeds go to Nelson Mandela's HIV/AIDS global awareness campaign and Vusi Mahlasela's Music Development Foundation.
While this album is relatively mainstream,it's a perfect introduction to South African music.It complements Angelique Kidjo's "Djin Djin" and Putumayo's "Acoustic Africa." It could be called "Vusi Mahlasela:Unplugged." It's hardly overproduced;it's the guitar and The Voice-a perfect sonic pairing.
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Description of Guiding Star
Vusi Mahlasela was born in 1965 and grew up in the Mamelodi township outside Pretoria, South Africa. He assembled his first guitars from discarded cooking-oil cans with wire strings, but his talent was so overwhelming that the novelist Nadine Gordimer arranged for the boy's formal music education. By the 1980s, his unrelenting courage in the face of government oppression became a factor in the downfall of apartheid. Often described as a folk singer, his music is indeed deeply rooted in Zulu traditions like mbube (a cappella vocals) and mbaqanga (township pop), but there are also touches of jazz (the local variety and from the USA), reggae, and plenty of judiciously applied Western mainstream quotes. For album number six, his second for Dave Matthews's ATO label, the dulcet-voiced singer-activist has brought on an impressive roster of guest stars. Matthews himself appears on track seven, "Sower of Words," and bows gracefully to Mahlasela's vision, as do, each in their own turn, Jem, Derek Trucks, Xavier Rudd, and--not surprisingly--Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Despite the high-octane sitters-in, a preponderance of English-language lyrics, and slick production values, the bandleader's guitar and voice remain the central focus of the mix, and thus the project succeeds brilliantly. Hit pick: a raucously sloppy, engagingly silly cover of Miriam Makeba's "Pata Pata." --Christina RodenInternational CDs
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