Vusi MahlaselaOne of the hardest things to learn as a musician is when to not only recognize inspiration, but when to trust and follow it. Over a musically and socially consequential career, South African singer-songwriter and poet-activist Vusi Mahlasela has successfully followed his muse. That trust in his gift is at the root of his latest album, Guiding Star.
Mahlasela wrote and recorded this album as he toured the globe. Its soul-stirring title is very much a product of the new friends he’s met and experiences he’s had touring. Bearing the influences of various music and voices from throughout the world, Guiding Star features guest appearances from friend (and partial ATO Records label head) Dave Matthews (“Sower of Words”), band leader and Allman Brothers guitarist Derek Trucks (“Tibidi Waka”), Australian didgeridoo star Xavier Rudd (“Chamber of Justice”), singer-songwriter Jem (“Everytime”) and longtime friends and touring mates Ladysmith Black Mambazo (“Heaven In My Heart”). Mahlasela also drew on the talents of numerous South African guests, including the legendary “Black Moses” Ngwenya of the Soul Brothers, the children’s choir from the Agnes Chidi School in his home Township, Mamelodi, and the KCC Gospel, among many others.
Mahlasela, an accomplished guitarist, percussionist, composer, arranger, band leader and performer, has bridged generations at home and abroad. His sound is a hybrid of folk, world, blues and soul, one that connects South Africa’s Apartheid-scarred past with its promise for a better future. Over the past three years of heavy, world-wide touring and spreading his message, Mahlasela has remained true to his roots.
The bulk of Guiding Star was recorded on a farm in rural South Africa. Like any Vusi Mahlasela album, there are songs that connect him and the people of South Africa with both their past, present, and hopes for a better future: “Song for Thandi” tells the story of detained freedom fighter Thandi Modise, while the affecting “Sower of Words”—featuring Dave Matthews—is a lament for the late Black Consciousness poet and writer Ingoapele Madingoane, who wrote the influential poem “Africa My Beginning, Africa My Ending.”
“There’s a part on it where I needed a very strong voice to drive the message across, and Dave was the perfect voice,” Mahlasela says of the latter. “Dave adds passionate, rich vocals to this song, taking it to a new level.”
"Renowned for the simmering, soulful spirit of his music and its prominent role in the anti-apartheid movement, Vusi Mahlasela is an icon simply known as "The Voice" in his native South Africa. That supple, peppery voice slips across octaves with a grace that belies its passion and power, incorporating tenderness and strength. Drawing on traditional South African stuff like mbaqanga and township jazz, Mahlasela fuses it with bits of international pop, gospel, and western folk. His latest, Guiding Star (ATO), features an international cast of guests, including guitarist Derek Trucks, Dave Mathews, a gospel choir, and fellow South Africans Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Soul Brothers' keyboardist "Black Moses" Ngwenya. It includes an elegant, loving elegy for Mahlasela's late mother, tributes to fallen comrades in the struggle for equal rights, celebratory dance music, and an incendiary, reggae-fueled call for justice. Mahlasela rolls the past and present together into a compelling message for the future carried on cunning rhythms and the voice of a nation." (Rick Mason, City Pages A-List Pick 4/27/08)
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