Pop & Jazz Reviews : Zulu Spear Falls Short of ‘Graceland’ Standard

Paul Simon may have opened the door for South African music with “Graceland,” but he didn’t make it easy for anyone to walk through. The concert at the Roxy on Tuesday by Zulu Spear--a San Francisco-based band built around four South African natives--demonstrated just how high a standard Simon set.

Zulu Spear’s set offered an accomplished, very danceable sampler of South African styles, colored by an honest affection for Western funk, reggae and even Motown.

The group fares best when Westernizing the African styles made familiar by the likes of Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the “Indestructible Beat of Soweto” anthology, rather than Africanizing Western styles.

But too often the attempts at cultural integration resulted in generic exotica that missed the natural dynamics of the original forms (one African-flavored calypso number sounds like a Club Med commercial). And too many songs employ English lyrics with the kind of cliched positive-thinking message that plagues the world music genre.

What Simon achieved--and what Zulu Spear misses--is an internalization of the styles that results in a balance of global reach and a uniquely personal perspective. In contrast, Zulu Spear’s approach to global music and themes is literal and linear. So when the group chronicles its cultural journey from strife-ridden South Africa to the overwhelming West in “Welcome to the USA” (which was actually written by the band’s California-born guitarist), there’s none of the metaphorical glory of Simon’s trip to Graceland.