Legendary South African song and dance crew Mahotella Queens have been purveyors of lush vocal harmonies and unique bouncy dance steps for more than four decades. They are some of the most notable exemplars of mbaqanga, a style emerging from Johannesburg suburbs like Sophiatown which fused rural Zulu vocal music with Afro-American pop (initially big band swing) later, incorporating gospel, r&b, and other styles as it further defined itself and rose to prominence in the 1960s.

Despite a long breakup in the 1970s, a regrouping and renewed interest after the South African vogue created by Paul Simon’s Graceland in the 1980s, and the untimely passing of their incomparable male vocalist, “The Lion of Soweto,” Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde, and recent forays into a capella performance, the group remain uncompromising practitioners of their classic sound.

Mahotella Queens play a free show at BAM today (details) and another later tonight a Joe’s Pub (details)