Pittsburgh Girlie

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Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Last night I went to a concert. I bought tickets on a lark. I knew I had heard and liked this group. What I didn’t realize was how much I had actually already heard from the group. I was surprised how many people recognized their name, simply because I had just discovered them. I bet you’ve heard them too.

Here is a Lifesaver’s commercial that I know you have seen if you lived in the US in the 90’s.

Their biography is really long, so I pulled some of it over here for you.

The group has recorded with numerous artists from around the world besides Paul Simon. Some of these include Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, Dolly Parton, Ben Harper, Mavis Staples, Andreas Vollenweider, The Wynans, The Coors and George Clinton. Their film work includes a featured
appearance in Michael Jackson’s video “Moonwalker” and Spike Lee’s “Do It A Cappella”. Black Mambazo has provided soundtrack material for Disney’s “The Lion King Part II”,  Eddie Murphy’s “Coming To America”, Marlon Brando’s “A Dry White Season”, James Earl Jones’ “Cry The Beloved Country” and Sean Connery’s “League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.  They also can be heard singing the theme song to a children’s tv show, in the USA, called “Land Before Time.”

You can watch/listen to the video for Land Before Time. (Really, I know you want to click. I know you watched and own all the movies too…wait, that’s just me? Crap.)

Anyway, the concert.

I was at first disappointed that there were no images or videos of birds or something to do with the songs being projected. After the first song I really appreciated it being just them on the stage. I could really feel the music. And it was obvious that they were having a great time. I remembered my mom telling me that her favorite concert was just the artist and his piano on the stage. That was Elton John and I bet it was like magic.

A few months ago I saw a concert that was similar. I saw Keller Williams. It was one man and lots of instruments. The concert last night with Ladysmith Black Mambazo was many men and one instrument. And it was simply beautiful.

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First Live Show

Sunday night I saw a tweet that Uncle Crappy, Mrs. Crappy, and Allthingsnoisy were meeting at LuLu’s Noodles for dinner. I was pretending to do homework at my office, which is right across the street, so I decided to crash dinner. This resulted in me being dragged to the show they were all heading to after dinner. Okay, not really dragged ’cause I was interested.

I’ve been to concerts and I’ve seen performances in small venues, but this show was entirely different. This show had life. I had never been to Mr. Small’s Funhouse. I knew vaguely where it was. I didn’t know it was a church. It’s beautiful inside. I want to go back sometime during the daylight hours and wander around. It’s beautiful. I love repurposed churches. I have an aversion to being in current churches though. Something about the frankincense at Christmas Mass a few years ago.

Keller Williams was performing and he was amazing. I have never seen a show like this before, he was amazing. (Did I already say that? Well he was.) He’s one guy on a stage with a zillion different instruments, from a range of guitars to a hollowed out gourd called a karimba I think. He has amazingly fast fingers on the guitar. My jaw dropped and I think Uncle Crappy picked it up for me. Keller builds the song one instrument at a time, looping each one into the mix. It was amazing!

So, it’s not music that I can really see myself listening to outside of a live show like this. But the way he builds each song was super interesting. I guess I looked really bored because the Crappies kept asking me if I was having fun. I was really enjoying watching how each song built up.

I am super self-concious so I’ve trained myself, unknowingly and over many years, to not have reactions to things. So I guess I probably looked bored out of my mind, but I really wasn’t. Promise.

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