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 likembube(a cappellavocals) andmbaqanga(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 Roden