Justin Time /

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Title
Duration
Excerpts
01
Processional Medley: Highway To Heaven / One Way To God / I'm So Glad I'm Walking With The King / Power In The Blood
00:04:16
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02
Jesus Lover Of My Soul
00:06:29
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03
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (Lord Bless Africa)
00:02:52
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04
Impimpi (The Spy)
00:04:30
05
Amavaka (Be Afraid)
00:03:48
06
We M'Bulali (Hey Murderers!)
00:03:26
07
Hamba Ku Jesu (Come To Jesus)
00:02:59
08
Imbizo (The Meeting)
00:03:48
09
Ingwe (The Leopard)
00:04:10
10
Ngubani Omemezayo (Who's Left Calling?)
00:03:07
11
Ayimale (The Rejection)
00:05:26
12
Babethandaza (As Mother Used To Pray)
00:05:25
13
Amazing Grace
00:05:21
14
Highway To Heaven
00:01:04

Liner Notes

The Indestructible Beat Of Saint-Henri

The Aborigines of Australia navigated the complex network of invisible roads and wells that criss-crossed the desert outback by 'singing' the routes and committing them to memory. Their songlines are a triumph of oral tradition, a rich history embedded in song. In much the same way, the Diaspora of African musics that stretch across the Atlantic and back-from field hollers, blues, gospel, and jazz to calypso, reggae, R&B, and hip hop-are like an atlas of roads traveled, musical maps of African culture, the joyous song of a people's struggle and triumph.

Great black music has always looked to Africa for inspiration. Artists as diverse as Randy Weston and the Jungle Brothers have made the pilgrimage, closed the loop and brought their culture home. Thus many African popular musics - mbalax, soukous, jit, and mbaqanga - are infused with Western pop styles. In the summer of 1996, Trevor Payne, founder and director of the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir, visited Zimbabwe and South Africa. Over the past 15 years, Payne, who had successfully set the Jubilation's jewel of gospel in jazz, funk, classical and Caribbean settings, was looking to return to his roots. It was in South Africa that he found the sound he was looking for: impish, jittery concertina, spidery, highly-strung guitars, low-slung, elliptical basslines, and rapid-fire Zulu singing. It was the sound that first exploded on the world over a decade ago when Shanachie released the seminal compilation The Indestructible Beat of Soweto, and when one of pop music's most popular mensches exhorted us to call him 'Al' and join him on a trip to Graceland. The sound was township jive. The gulf between it and gospel is not as far as it may seem. The sharply observed details of everyday life contained in the lyrics of township jive are rooted in celebration, history, and reckoning.

In Johannesburg, Payne visited one of South Africa's biggest township jive superstars -Johnston Zibakwakhe Mnyandu (Phuzekhemisi) who he refers to as 'the Ritchie Havens / Bob Dylan of Africa' rolled into one. Payne played Phuzekhemisi a cassette of the Choir's 'Calypso Christmas Medley' from Jubilation V-Joy To The World, and Phuzekhemisi was hooked. The stage was set for Imbizo: the meeting.

The challenges were fierce: most of Phuzekhemisi's music is in a key alien to gospel ears (B-flat/ and, like blues, has a paucity of chords. Also, the choir had to be taught Zulu (as well as Ndebele and Luhiya, two offshoots from the Zulu Nation, which is loaded with contractions, clicks, and regional eccentricities. Yet Payne is nothing if not a superlative Black alchemist, a master at blending musical genres, and his solution was ingenious: parsing the Zulu lyrics syllable by syllable, he created a phonetic fake-book and taught the choir through the cornerstone of gospel - the oral tradition.

The choir meets the challenge, and the results are spectacular. Listen to the force and grace the choir brings to the dynamics and counterpoint of 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika; the South African National Anthem, their uplifting performance of the hit 'Babethandaza' or the amazing call-and-response - with all the punch of a hot James Brown horn chart- on Ayimale (even Phuzekhemizi was impressed; you can hear him lay back as the choir sings the Zulu lick, vamping till ready.) The real success in Hamba Ekhaya is how the music manages to evoke two worlds without one taking precedence over the other, as in Hamba Ku Jesu' where the glorious a cappella harmonies of gospel and the circular percussion rhythms of Africa dovetail magically.

Jubilation VII -Hamba Ekhaya represents the culmination of a long-standing dream for Trevor Payne, begun 15 years ago at Union United Church in Saint-Henri. Today he has brought the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir full circle, taking the Lord's blessing and the indestructible beat of Saint-Henri home to Africa, and into our hearts.

Andrew Jones

Ayimale (The Rejection)
Members of the Zulu community have been maliciously 'gossiping' about Phuzekhemisi and his girlfriend. She has been warned about his unfaithfulness and encouraged to leave him and find another. But alas, true love reigns supreme and she cleverly sees through the 'idle banter', turns a deaf ear to their pleas and the loving couple lives happily to this very day.

Ingwe (The Leopard)
There is a common notion that the Leopard, with its bright spots, attracts attention when it is among other animals, distinctly outshining others in beauty. The Zulu language's direct translation of this idiom means that the Leopard literally 'eats with its spots'. Phuzekhemisi objects to this, of course, and suggests that the only thing a leopard can eat with is, in fact, its mouth.

Ngubani Omemezayo? (Who's Shouting?)
There is a well-known disc jockey in South Africa by the name of Mandla who apparently loves to shout on the air in an attempt to wake up his listeners in the morning in order to get them off to work and school. This song is dedicated to him.

Imbizo (The Meeting)
This song is about the Imbizo, a traditional meeting called by the chiefs in the rural villages. As Phuzekhemisi sings, he laments the fact that there are far too many such meetings. They are usually called to publicly discuss how the citizens can be further taxed for their land. The people are dismayed by these meetings since they feel the land was justly inherited from their ancestors and therefore no tax should be levied. Phuzekhemisi's recording of this song was once as popular as the South African national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

Impimpi (The Spy)
This song is about a spy at work, who, without official authority, started noting down all latecomers, thus reporting them to the employer. Phuzekhemisi then reminds his colleagues that he long warned them of this spy.

Amakava (The Cowards)
Here Phuzekhemisi refers to all the musicians that threaten to 'dethrone' him. He, nevertheless, is confident that this will never come to pass as long as they depend on 'mute' (mind expanding herbs) to inspire them. Phuzekhemisi depends solely on the 'power of music' as his driving force.

We M'bulali (Hey Murderers)
Phuzekhemisi is trying to reprimand a killer from further killing senselessly, and, at the same time, demanding to know how long this person will be allowed to go on killing innocent people. He calls upon others to pray together with him since his own brother was killed in a car accident and he is overwhelmed by his own misfortune.