LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO : ZULU DREAM HARMONIES SUNG A CAPPELLA

For Joseph Shabalala, the music of Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a dream come true--literally.

“This music is a gift from God, because the thing that encouraged me, where I copied the right sound and the right harmony, came in a dream,” explained Shabalala, leader of the South African vocal group.

Ladysmith is emerging as a big winner from Paul Simon’s “Graceland” collaboration with African musicians. The 10-man a cappella group has been electrifying audiences with its resonant harmonizing and high-stepping stage presence on Simon’s tour, and the group’s first album for a major American label, “Shaka Zulu,” was released last month by Warner Bros. Ladysmith plays the Wiltern Theatre on Friday, preceding a two-week headlining tour of North America next month.

Simon’s hook-up with South African musicians has been embroiled in controversy for several months. But Shabalala, 46, views the exposure from “Graceland” as a positive development for both his group and for South African music in general.

“I have heard many people criticize him,” acknowledged Shabalala during a phone interview midway through the Australian leg of the “Graceland” tour. “They say he is exploiting the music but, to me, this is a good opportunity for every South African music. . . . Everybody in South Africa is clapping hands for Paul Simon, all our supporters.”

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is the most popular exponent of the isicathamiya or cothoza mfana music. Shabalala defined the interchangeable terms as “walk proud.” The style is rooted in the tradition of South Africa’s Zulu tribe and was originally limited to celebrations on special occasions such as marriages and holidays. But the music changed when many blacks began moving into the sexually segregated hostels of South Africa’s urban townships in search of work.

“When our fathers came to Johannesburg to work there, they stay in the hostels and start to sing alone,” explained Shabalala, speaking in heavily accented broken English. “They try to imitate the girls, to sing the high parts, because at home there used to be only girls who will sing those parts.”

Shabalala grew up in the rural village of Ladysmith with no exposure to outside music through records or radio. He migrated 200 miles to the coastal city of Durban in the late ‘50s and joined the Highlanders vocal group. He eventually returned to Ladysmith and formed a group with his younger brothers, but that early unit only performed once or twice a year before Shabalala had his fateful dream in 1964.

“I used to look for children who are singing,” he related. “There is a stage but the children are not on stage. They were in between the stage and sky, just floating there and always singing. They are like my teachers who teach me exactly this sound.

“I start to copy those harmonies because, from (the music of) our fathers at that time, the sound was not exactly correct. I was always thinking about how can I (describe) this music until I started to have that sound from the dream.”

Shabalala returned to music with renewed seriousness the next year, but it wasn’t until Ladysmith Black Mambazo (“the black ax of Ladysmith”) was formed in 1969 that he captured the sound he was after. A live broadcast on South African radio in 1970 generated the first national interest in the group.

Since its first album in 1972, the group has released more than 25 LPs of secular and religious material in South Africa (three were released here by the Shanachie label before the group’s Warner Bros. deal). Shabalala credits the group’s popularity in Africa to the lyrics’ messages, which often reflect Zulu customs and history. But the most distinctive characteristic for Western pop listeners is the bass-heavy vocal sound. Behind Shabalala’s soft yet rough-edged lead vocals are one alto and one tenor voice; the remaining seven members handle the bottom line.

“This type of music needs a bass,” Shabalala explained. “The first time we sing in the big halls, we have no instruments. We did the tours without microphones for a long time. It’s easy to hear this high voice but those basses are singing in deep voices and there must be many people to be strong.”

Shabalala is already encountering different pressures stemming from Ladysmith’s new international stature.

Some old fans are upset over the mixture of Zulu and English lyrics on the “Shaka Zulu” album; others press for occasional instrumental accompaniment to create greater commercial interest. And “Homeless,” the song Shabalala co-wrote with Simon for “Graceland,” has stirred up some questions in his native country.

“They say, ‘Now, Mr. Shabalala, you start to do a politician’s job, eh?’ ” he related. “What do you mean about politician? I don’t know anything about politicians. If the song is political, it’s the song, not me.

“We compose a song for the people and they use the song where they like. If they want to use the song in the church or use it in politics, it’s their song because we allow them to buy it.”