hat, you don’t remember the Zulu-language soul craze of the early ’70s? Oh, right, it didn’t happen—most of these incandescent, supple grooves weren’t even released at the time. Organized by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela (briefly a pop star from his ’68 instrumental hit “Grazing in the Grass”), the Chisa label teamed expatriate African musicians with a West Coast psychedelic jazz-funk crew. The resulting hybrids—recorded years before anyone talked about “world music”—have the pulse of American soul but distinctly non-American singing from the likes of the phenomenal, liquid-voiced Letta Mbulu. The band is spirited enough to carry even occasional English-language inanities (“Witch doctor/Livingston, I presume”), and when the singers lock into gospel harmonies, you can hear them reveling in their own power.

DOWNLOAD: Letta Mbulu, “U Se Mcani”; Baranta, “Ahvuomo”