A concert by Vusi Mahlasela is said to be much more than a show; it’s a shared gathering with intimate conversation among friends.
Mahlasla, the South African artist whose songs of hope and forgiveness have inspired the likes of Dave Matthews and Ladysmith Black Mambazo to join him musically, takes the audience on a musical journey through the struggles his countrymen have endured and the hope that remains.
“Every place you go is a different vibe,” said Mahlasela from a relative’s home in Victoria, South Africa. “As an artist, I want to appreciate the people who are there with me, to appreciate the given place that I am and the people that are there.”
And share a bit of his world with them, as he is during this ongoing U.S. and U.K. tour. Indeed, Mahlasela’s upbringing during the 1976 South African turmoil — his attendance as a young child at often raucous political rallies, his concerns when elders spoke of the country’s disarray — culminated in his musical messages.
“The glue that held the performance together was Mahlasela's singular presence,” wrote a reviewer in the Los Angeles Times. “His tales of growing up during the painful era of apartheid, his descriptions of night vigils and protest marches, told in a grippingly quiet manner, set the stage for one compelling number after another…”
But don’t think that Mahlasela’s songs are three-hanky numbers. Far from it — the tone is often light with plenty of light rhythm and flutes, the words ones of hope. Many are struck by how the airy melodies are in stark contrast to Mahlasela’s large physical presence.
His songs, said Mahlasela, spontaneously come to him at different times, in different places. Listening to all genres of music “ease my mind” and help him create.
“I learned from [Nelson] Mandela and [Desmond] Tutu that forgiveness is within you,” he said. “If you don’t forgive, you are the one who suffers the most.”
Whatever the vibe of a place or the dynamics of an audience, the message that so influenced him also resonate with others.
“After the shows, people come and talk to me,” said Mahlasela. “Sometimes they’ll say things like `I hated my mother. Now I will forgive my mother.’ Some people have tears coming out. It is quite a moving experience for me.”
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