Ladysmith Black Mambazo didn’t just help popularise traditional Zulu music with Western audiences (as though anyone had tried beforehand); they brought about broader cultural awareness of South Africa during an apartheid era when it would have been easier for those outside the country to simply look away. Even as the group ascended to international stardom (featuring on Paul Simon’s 1986 LP Graceland, singing the opening theme to Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America and accompanying Nelson Mandela to receive the Nobel Peace Prize), they retained an ambassadorial status in the musical landscape. What’s remarkable about listening to them, then, is how familiar it all can sound, reminiscent of doo-wop, glee club, nursery rhymes, the voice of a mother comforting her child—a network of a cappella music whose roots are too deep and wide-reaching to express the spirit of any single place. Legend has it that Joseph Shabalala, who died in 2020, decided to found the group in the early '60s after waking up from a dream. They sing like it too.