An array of yet to be unveiled artists from countries sharing similar musical influences will convene in the city of Praia on Friday, April 9th and Saturday, April 10th , 2010. 

In an attempt to promote Kriol-inspired jazz of varying islands throughout the globe, such as Antilles, Caribbean, Madagascar, Reunion, and others, Cape Verde-based Music Label Harmonia Lda and the city of Praia partnered in 2009 to put together the Kriol Jazz Festival.

The lineup at the first edition included reputable musicians such as, Tchéka, Meddy Gerville, Ba Cissoko, Mário Lucio, Lenine, Mario Cannonge & Ralph Thamar, Baú, Voginha, Regis Gisavo, and Jorge Reyes. promoting jazz inspired by Kriol of various islands throughout the world, like the Antilles, Caribbean, Madagascar, Reunion Island, Cape Verde, as well as Brazil.

A star in his own right in his native country, Novellas got the opportunity to perfect his music abroad in Portugal (2002), through a scholarship. He studied classical singing and guitar at the Academia de Musica Eborense and later at Universidade de Musica de Evora. Classical music certainly became an important asset to his musical development, but Novellas admits that it did not help him create the styles and sounds of New Dawn-Ku Khata. “Maybe it will on my next albums,” he said.
 
Mixing crafty African sounds, inspired by the likes of Ismaël lo, Salif Keita, and Fela Kuti, with ricochets of blues, funk, jazz, Latin and Brazilian music, Novellas, who has relocated to the Netherlands, is obviously reaching for something very high. While he explores new sonorities and shows audacity to make dangerous leaps, Novellas is clearly pleased with the outcome, especially the warm accolades he has received on the road. “People just love my music; I mean people love my music all over the world.  I can tell my music has something that will touch every human, even me. We need to tour worldwide and for all kinds of audience,” said Novellas.

Boasting a mixture of Suzanna’s trademark Zouk and Latin influences, sprinkled with R&B, Bachata, and Batuku, the CD, which according to the label has hit shelves in the Benelux, France and Portugal, will soon be available for sale in North America and African countries. And as a special treat the American version will also include the album Saida, Suzanna’s 2008 release.

Festa Mascarado counted with the participation of an eclectic group of collaborators, including The Heavy Weights (who previously worked with R&B star Ne-Yo), Rafael Payan, Ronald Rubinel, Marcos Fernandez, Nellson Klasszik, Adalberto Lopes and Denis Graça.

The singer, who wrote most of the songs on the album, also co-created Friends, based on a composition by the late Lisa Left Eye Lopes’ of American band, TLC, with the support of the Lisa Lopes Foundation—an entity dedicated to providing neglected and abandoned youth with the resources necessary to increase their quality of life.

In support of the new album, Suzanna is scheduled to perform in Dakar, Senegal, on 06/6, before returning home to Netherlands for concerts at the Rainpark Festival, Dordrecht, on 06/14, Festival Mundial, Tilburg, on 06/21, at Wereldfeest, Utrecht, on 06/28, and Lucent Danstheater, The Hague, on 07/4.

Suzanna, a previous recipient of the prestigious Kora All African Music Awards (2003) for Best African Female Artist and Best Video, easily reigned as one Cape Verde’s top female voices.  She is known for releasing chart-toppers like, Sem Bo Nes Mund (1997), Fofo (1999), and Tudo Pa Bo (2003).

“From what I understand they were going to Timbuktu and decided they wanted to meet (singer) Cesaria Evora so they stopped in Cape Verde during their return,” said Ferreira. First, they landed in Praia and then they got the proper authorization to land in Sao Vicente. There a cultural delegation prepared to give them an official welcome. A dinner was organized. But it wasn’t just Jimmy Buffet. There was Tom Preston, the founder of MTV, Bill Flanagan who is the vice-president of VH-1 New York, and Chris Blackwell, who is a well-known musical figure from England and was a co-producer of Bob Marley, among a few other notables.’’

There was a hitch, though. Cesaria never descended from her sanctuary to meet the Westerners at her front door but Buffett and his friends remained undeterred. Buffett, already familiar with other artists from Cape Verde, wanted to check out the local talent. “Many of the best musicians from São Vicente were invited to come out and perform at this dinner and it was a great success,” said Ferreira. “After the dinner, we went back to Mindelo Hotel for a jam session. It was highly improvised but now Jimmy Buffet himself sat in. That’s where I performed. So that’s where it began.”’’

Veteran Chico Serra, Tey, who plays percussion for Cesaria, guitarist-producer Hernani Almeida, U.S.-based guitar player Cesar Lima and others, all were on stage. But, it was the handsome and charismatic Ferreira who seemed to grab Buffett’s attention. Enter Jimmy Buffett: “I’ve got to tell you it is a real interesting story,” he said recently on a call from Jamaica. “I’ve always wanted to go to Cape Verde. I love Cesaria Evora and Tito Paris and other musicians from there. I actually stopped there once to refuel on the way back from South Africa. But this time we were coming from Bamako (Mali) from the Concert in the Dessert and decided to stop in.”’
’
Buffett, a native of Pascagoula, Mississippi, has recorded more than 40 albums and with his Coral Reefer Band is revered by legions. Widely known for his philanthropy, his business interests are far and wide. He is the owner of the Magaritaville Café and Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants, combined with tours and album sales his enterprise is estimated to gross $100 million a year.

Great Public Persona

While the process and handling of Ferreira has been methodical, Buffett said that his team is still in the process of figuring out just how to market him, especially in this difficult economic context. “We made a commitment to him at a very difficult time,” he said. “I don’t know how we are going to proceed. We are kind of quietly moving along in an unorthodox way. We think he can appeal some to my audience. Then there’s the Capeverdean audience and because of his time spent in Brazil there might be an audience there. But it’s time to go back to the minor leagues. He’ll have to do the small clubs and such to build his audience and his name. It will be great for people to see him and to let him build on that. We are not in a hurry. I hope it works. He’s a humble guy and a hard worker so there is so much in his favor.””
      
Ferreira recently became acquainted with his band members whom he met at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He hopes this project inspires other Capeverdeans to dream and look beyond their immediate surroundings.
 
“It’s on the road to becoming a reality,” he said. “I have no doubts on the planning and strategies so far. There is a tremendous investment in this album. Jimmy has spared no expense to do this project correctly. We recorded in Nashville in the best studio with some of the great musicians in the city. The bassist on the project there played with Dire Straits and the pianist was Bill Payne who played with Pink Floyd. So that gives you an idea of what was going on. We worked to produce a highly successful album,” he said. “When it is finished and released, I think it has the chance to produce a shock in Cape Verde waking up the public to value what is ours in terms of talent and potential. We can’t always shorten our horizons by solely focusing on the things that we have done and created and not reaching out to try new things.”” ’’
 
Unwitting Role

Speaking on behalf of Cesaria Evora’s role in this fairy tale, Ferreira said the normally-hospitable Cesaria apparently wasn’t in the mood to host people at the time they showed up. But given her committed support of Capeverdean musicians, she’s probably thrilled at Ferreira’s chance.

“From what I heard, they went to Cesaria’s home and got in,” said Ferreira. “But Cesaria never came downstairs to greet them maybe because she was ill. I believe that if Cesaria really knew who it was who came to see her, she would have come downstairs. I’m sure she was tired. If she greets every person who goes to her home to meet her, she wouldn’t have a life. She returns to Cape Verde to rest after her tours that are just exhausting. So I think that’s what happened.””

Perched on the precipice of potential stardom, Ferreira said his life is coming full circle. “I lived in Brazil for six years and made some great friends,” he said. “It was an excellent phase of my life. I got a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of São Paulo at the campus of São Carlos. I never thought of becoming a professional musician. My plan was to become an airplane pilot. So I turned to engineering but I never abandoned my dream of piloting. Additionally, while I was in Brazil, the feeling for music began increasing and that’s where I wrote most of my songs. That strengthened my feelings that I wanted music instead of being a pilot. So I started out gradually in Mindelo just to earn some spending money. From there I kept on playing until I met Jimmy Buffett.

It now appears Buffett won’t rest until he meets Cesaria Evora, which he said could come real soon. “I went to see her at her house but she wouldn’t come downstairs,” he said. “But they did let us see her records and awards and such. I guess she wasn’t feeling well. But we just recently learned that she is going to do a private party in St. Bart’s (in the Caribbean),” said Buffett, implying that the artist who loves the island life and who is known to do private parties of his own in that exclusive region just might crash the gate and get a private audience with the Barefoot Diva herself.

Jorge Humberto will begin his tour at the Bisca Club in New Bedford, MA, on May 1st, followed by Rosinha Restaurant in Pawtucket, RI, on May 2nd, Restaurante Cesaria in Dorchester, MA, on May 3rd, and Luanda in Brockton, MA, on May 16th. He is also scheduled to perform in New Jersey (dates and venues TBA).

Jorge Humberto, who is planning to record his new album during this trip, will be accompanied by a band, which includes musicians such as César Lima, Calú Lopes, George Da Rosa, Vává, Djosca, and a violinist (TBA).

Known as the poet of his native Mindelo (Cape Verde), Jorge Humberto, who is notorious for the use of metaphors and profound thinking, has released albums such as “Guenta” in 1992, “Mόiabo um Consolá,” in 1995, “Portexperimental” in 1998 and finally “Identidade” (Identity) in December 2004. He also provided many hit songs to singers such as Ana Firmino, Biús, Maria Alice, and Dudu Araujo.

Sara will then take on Holland (5/6th and 5/12th) and Belgium (3/8th and 5/9th). She will be in Germany where she is scheduled to perform at the Fabrik in Hamburg on 5/13th, at Kesselhaus in Berlin on 5/15th, at Brotfabrik in Frankfurt on 5/16th, at BASF Geselschaftshaus in Ludwigshafen on 5/17th, at Konzerthaus in Dortmund on 5/19th, and finally at Africa Festival in Wurzburg on 6/1st.

On June 3rd, Sara will be at Sala Galileo in Madrid before leaving for Barcelona where she will make an appearance at the Auditori 2 on June 5th. Sara will then perform at Bulgaria Hall in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 6/26th, at Sala Kongresowa in Warsaw, Poland, on June 28th, and at Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, on 9/24th.

The Lisbon-born singer, the winner of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin at 16-years old, recently released “Live in Lisboa,” two CDs and DVD set, which features recording of a live concert (March 2007) in Lisbon and previously released albums Balancê (2005) and Mi Ma Bô (1999).

Says Olinôs “Here we are! Sabura d’Soncent promises the fragrance, the groove, the emotions of the music from the island of Sao Vicente.“
 
They play the traditional music of Cape Verde (Morna, Coladeira, Batuque, Funana) with a flavour of Jazz and Bossa Nova, an incredible mixture, which will go under your skin and will make you want to dance.

Swagato, Swabian Jazz musician with a deep longing for the world at large and founder of Olinôs, has been living on the island of Sao Vicente for the past four years. He has been performing locally and internationally with some of the best Capeverdean musicians such as Bau, Tito Paris, Dudu Araujo, Tcheka etc. Swagato has just finished recording with Cesaria Evora (new album). He has participated in more than 10 Capeverdean albums, lending his unique saxophone and flute styles.

Hernani started to play the guitar at the age of seven and over the years he has been absorbing the instrumental music of the island, being especially inspired  by guitarist Voginha. For four years, he studied classical and Jazz guitar at the Conservatorio of Porto in Portugal. His studio work and touring includes artists like Bau, Sara Tavares, Dudu Araujo and Tcheka. Today, he is said to be one Cabo Verde’s most accomplished soloists and innovative arrangers.

Jennifer Solidade, 21, is presently the most fascinating new voice of those islands in the Atlantic. She has a rich blues timbre, a wounderful stage presence, great interaction with the audience and is a great dancer. She has started working on her first solo album with the musicians of Olinôs.

Zé Paris toured with Cesaria Evora for many years. He is now, like Swagato, Hernani and Micau, playing with Bau, the former band leader of Cesaria. He is also one of the most accomplished musicians of his instrument, the acoustic bass guitar. Innovative in his scales and rhythmically a fantastic groover, he takes care of the fundamental of the band.

Micau is real virtuoso on drums and percussions. His specialities are the rhythms of Morna, Coladeira, and Reggae, which he interweaves with jazzy and latin grooves. For many years he played with Vasco Martins, Voginha and Bau and has recorded several albums with them.

Since she was part of a Christian family, church was not only a spiritual, but also a musical source, always present in her life. She got her first musical experience at the age of 14, singing in the church choir. But it wasn’t until 1999 that she started her professional career when she was chosen to sing at the well-known and still the only reference of Gospel in Portugal, the choir Shout!

Almost immediately she caught the attention of Portuguese artists like Lucia Moniz and Kika Santos, who invited her to be their backup singer and with whom she toured the country, strongly contributing to her musical growth.

Some time later, recognizing the talent and promising capacities of Carmen, Theo Pas'cal, producer and musical director of the Gospel Choir Shout, invited her to be part of his record label TheOo TheZz, taking over of the management and booking of the artist.

At only 20 years-old, the decision of making music her way of life brought a big deal of responsibility to Carmen. She developed a great interest in studying music and started learning to play the guitar. After witnessing her devotion, her father offered her his old Fender Guitar so she could learn on his own instrument. This symbolic gesture only gave Carmen more will to pursue her goal and daily struggle.

Carmen then started working with Theo Pas’cal and his bands – Quamundo’s and Funky Messengers, with whom she toured between 2001 and 2003 as backup and lead singer. Between 2002 and 2003, she recorded “Shout, Human Faith, Funky Messengers and Theo Pas’cal Motive” albums, which featured some of Carmen’s lyrics.

Carmen is constantly developing her musical capacity, not only as a singer but also as a musician and composer. The search for a personal sound blending contemporary influence with her Cape Verde legacy is a challenge that she faces everyday. From this challenge was born her debut solo album "Ess ê nha Cabo Verde," which fetches lyrics in Kriolu and the production, composition and instrumental execution of Theo Pas'cal. This album is like the name says, her very own interpretation of the Capeverdean sounds and rhythms blended with other contemporary influences of fusion music.

Immigration to America came early. The first voyage to the United States of America occurred in 1957 on the ship Ernestina, now anchored at New Bedford harbor in Massachusetts.

After a brief return to Cape Verde, the same year, Armando De Pina embarked on the ship "Vera Cruz" to Lisbon, Portugal. From there he would proceed to the United States on TWA to finally settle. He wouldn't return to Cape Verde for another 9 years.

In Cape Verde and in the United States, music always accompanied him.Frequent requests for his singing talent were common for cultural activities
and special gatherings in the Cape Verdean community.

In the year of 1959, he wrote "Sara," a song inspired by the love of Sara and Nana. It became one of Armando's most requested songs.

In the year of 1963, walking on the beaches of Nantasket, Massachusetts, and missing his birthplace, Armando wrote "Mar É Morada De Sodade," today recorded by several renowned artists, among them, Cesária Évora and Bana.

The following year, "Djabraba 'N Ca Negabo" was composed. This piece probably defines best what Armando is all about. It is a song about the
longing for one's mother and home Brava. At the same time, he pledges never to forget either.

In 1985, a journey to Lisbon at a friends' insistence resulted in Armando's first album, "Nha Pensamento." The compositions "Mar É Morada De Sodade," "Sara," and "Djabraba 'N Ca Negabo" did quite well. Admirers were left wanting more. However, it would be several years before their wishes would be granted.

Armando and his wife Eugenia had decided to move to Florida in 1988. Eugenia unfortunately passed away from cancer. The song writing ceased for long time.

However, after getting through this painful experience, Armando returned to New England in 1996 and married Maria and started to sing again.

Nine years after his return to New England, Armando De Pina, with the assistance of Vuca Pinheiro and other great Cape Verdean artists, has a new album out called "Alma Cabo-verdiana" (The Soul of Cape Verde).

From the rich vocal fabric of Simentera, one voice in particular stood out, immediately seductive, strong and warm: the voice of Tété Alhinho. The group’s first album, “Raiz”, which includes two of her own songs, bears witness to this accomplished singer’s additional talents as songwriter/composer, talents she had already proved long before. Voz, her new album; and if this album shows that for Tété Alhinho there is life after Simentera (or rather alongside it, as that group love affair lives on with her), there was also life before Simentera, filled with music and song.

Born in Mindelo, in June 1956, Tété Alhinho now lives in Praia, capital of Cape Verde, on the island of Santiago. There, she has a room with a view… of the sea. Such surroundings have an unparalleled capacity for allowing her to slip away and let her imagination run wild to the sound of the waves, and for feeding her inspiration. “From my bed I see only the ocean, it’s wonderful”. When she speaks of this nest she has made for herself, her voice seems to sparkle with enthusiasm. Tété Alhinho has lived near the sea since the day she was born. In fact, she couldn’t do without it. “For island people”, she says, “it is impossible to live without it. The sea is a constant source of nostalgia and, for us Cape Verdeans, the feeling of saudade. The sea symbolizes separation and togetherness simultaneously. It allows us to come and go, but at the same time it distances us from those who must leave us.” When Tété Alhinho reminisces, she gazes out over the sea with a faraway look in her eyes.

From as far back as she can remember, she says, she has always sung: from her childhood up to the present, through her past collaborations with Os Tubaores, Voz de Cabo Verde, Ritmos de Cabo Verde, to Simentera and her own albums. But how did she succeed as a singer and achieve an artistic career? It could certainly be said that luck played some part. Or perhaps it was something do with the feeling that engulfed her, when she stepped on stage for the first time, aged 5, to recite a poem (“that day, my fate was sealed”). Then, barely three years later, she stood in at the last minute for a singer in a show she had to present to the audience.

There was also the piano at home “where we sang all the time”, with her mother gently rocking her to the sound old mornas and her father (who allowed her, but not her brothers and sisters, to sing and dance). With her father, she remembers, “we would sometimes spend the whole night, lying out on the ground, singing in the light of the moon”

When she left Mindelo, it was to go and study in Portugal, her father’s birthplace. She would stay there only a year, however, as the country was experiencing major unrest at the time. After the Carnation Revolution, when the university was closed, she headed for Cuba. Her stay there, and her studies, would last five years. She later recorded the first of her own albums in Portugal, in 1989. “Mares do Sul” was followed in 1995 by “Menino das Ilhas”, aimed mostly at children, and then came “Sentires” (1999), recorded in Senegal, with songs in Spanish, and finally “De Cor a Som” (2000).

In 1997, he joined some friends and established Art & Sound, a musical group with whom he participated in various musical programs for the Television of Cape Verde, Festival of Baia Das Gatas, and Gambôa Festival among others.

In 2001/2002 he recorded the album Alo Amor along Celia Dias, and worked on the project Eclipse which counted with the participation of some CapeVerdean artists.

In 2002, Arthur was invited by Angola’s first lady, Ana Paula Dos Santos, to perform during the Miss Angola competition.

Two years later, he introduced his first solo album entitled Intimidade in which he worked with singer Rene Cabral of “Cabo Verde Show” and many others of international reputation. Artur is the producer of Intimidade, which can be found in all Capeverdean record stores. Arthur has also worked with Guy N'Sangué ex-bassist of Kassav, Cuc's Freitas, and Alvino.    

Vadú was born in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, in 1977, in a family of musicians; he is the nephew of Zéca and ZéZé di Reinhalda, two of the most significant Capeverdean musicians for the last three decades.

As a young boy, Vadú literally ran after music. Because he did not have a guitar, he used to follow the grown ups, hoping they would let him play. Fortunately for him, when he was only 13 years old and frequented the Youth Center in Picos, he met Orlando Pantera, who taught him to play the guitar.

During the nineties he studied in Cuba for three years where he benefited from the thriving musical scene that opened new horizons to him as a young musician. In 1999 after returning to Praia where he still lives, he started working as a sound technician at Quintal da Música, a local bar, which features live music and has a strong sense for community work.

There, Vadú had the chance to work with several Capeverdean musicians, including the late Pantera who played there on Thursday nights. Musically, he’s inspired by the popular rhythms and genres from the interior of Santiago, mainly Batuko and Funaná. It’s also at Quintal da Música that Vadú penned his first songs.

His artistic charisma, vocal qualities and his beautiful songs soon got him on local stages. In the summer of 2001, he is discovered by Miguel Gomes da Costa, who was then looking for talents for a new record label in Cape Verde, Praia Records. He went on to record three songs which would be part of the compilation “AYAN – New Music from Cabo Verde.”

Vadú got the opportunity to work with Funaná band: Ferro Gaita – Bino, Eduíno, Manel di Tilina, Adão Brito, Lobo and Pitó--and also percussionist Gregório “Guigui” Sanchez, Ricardo de Deus (keyboards) and the Grupo de Batucadeiras Tambarina from Pedra Badejo. From then on, he began showcasing his raw talent during some of the most important music Festivals in Cape Verde such as the prominent Baía das Gatas and Gamboa 2002.

In Portugal, he has played at the mythical Club B’leza, at the Encontros de Música Africana 2003, at Parque das Nações and several other venues. The summer of 2003 witnesses another major development in his career when he recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, two original songs for the soundtrack of the Brazilian featured film “As Alegres Comadres” directed by Leila Hipólito.

For a few years, Mariana strayed from her native tradition in a search for other musical worlds, discovering everything from Claude Nougaro, Michel Jonasz, Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan to Rickie Lee Jones. However, she finally returned to her island roots when she met Teofilo Chantre and Nazalio Fortes, two young Cape Verdean songwriters. She naturally combined her newfound international influences with Cape Verdean tradition, setting her on the artistic course that would lead to her first album, “Di dor em or,” released in April 2000. During this period, she regularly performed at the New Morning, the Bataclan, and Café de la Danse, also toured in Africa, Italy and Greece, performing on stage with Tito Paris and Teofilo Chantre, and filling a support slot for Souad Massi.

Her sensual voice and performance warranted her special place in the rainbow of Cape Verdean music. Based on her hybrid heritage, her repertoire bridged tradition and modernity in a subtle blend of jazz notes, Brazilian music and African sounds. Mariana celebrated morna (Cape Verdean blues), coladera, mazurka and funana (a highly original dance for couples locked tight in a torrid embrace) in her own individual fashion. Her stage presence won her a singing and acting role in the play “Oyé Luna,” first performed in Cape Verde.

In 2004, Mariana brought us “Bibia,” a warm album produced by a combination of talents who share a common history. Its twelve songs, penned by Ano Nobo, Manuel de Novas, Teofilo Chantre and Toy Ramos, sweep us away and into another world. Supremely qualified by his long artistic partnership with Mariana, guitarist and arranger Lucien Zerrad produced this new opus, skilfully uniting its acoustic and electric sounds. Toy Ramos contributed four fine tracks that drip with “sodade,” so dear to hearts and bodies, then soar beyond it in visions of a future bursting with hope. When we are with Mariana Ramos, we can hear the world beat. Her songs have all the charm and savour of her native islands that seem to dance with the ocean forever, the barlavento and sotavento (leeward and windward) archipelago that gave birth to “Bibia” before it was recorded at Lusafrica’s Paris studios. The album bears the mark and scents of Cape Verde.

And who better to tell us about the source of its inspiration than Mariana?
"I dedicate this album to “Bibia,” the affectionate name for my grandmothers, women who were devoted to their children and grandchildren… My childhood memories always take me back to Monte Sossego, a district on São Vicente Island, where Bibia, my maternal grandmother, brought up a string of children left in her care by her daughters, who were forced to travel abroad to find work. Maria Antonia de Biluca was a woman of character: austere, generous and hard-working. She ran her shop and performed her everyday duties like a true matriarch. Baths, hair-brushing and meals (without forgetting a dish for that unexpected guest) formed the background of life in her little yard, whose shouts, laughter and even tears ring forever in my heart.”

Discography:

Recordings of duets or group recordings:
- Nando Da Cruz “Crianças di nos Terra” 2004 Lusafrica / Harmonia Mundi
- Tchala “Alò alò Mindelo” 2003 Lusafrica / Harmonia-Mundi Track 1 – Intentaçon d’carnaval
- Dan Inger  “Atlanticoblues” 2002  Dos Santos / Next Music Track 8 - Palco da Vida
- Teofilo Chantre “Noite de Cabo Verde no Zenith” 2001  Lusafrica Track 6 – Di Dor em Or

First solo album:
- “Di dor em or” Morabeza Records / Dam

New album
- “Bibia” - 09406-2 – a record from Do Soul / Harmonia Mundi distribution

Press department:
Lusafrica: Eliane PETIT (eliane.petit@noos.fr)
Tel.: +33(0)1.42.06.51.80 + Mobile: +33(0)6.64.15.51.80
LUSAFRICA, 115 rue Lamarck, 75018 Paris – promo@lusafrica.com

She has performed with many masterful musicians including: Armsted Christian, Santi Debriano, Andre Hayward, Fred Ho, Tim Ingles, Herb King, John Kordalewski, Bill Lowe, Semenya McCord, Hafez Modirzadeh, Lello Molinari, Shawnn Monteiro, Bill Pierce, Curtis Rivers, Manny Santos, Jackie Santos, Valerie Stephens, Stan Strickland, Bobby Ward, and Frank Wilkins, to name a few. Not to mention a very special performance with 6-time Grammy Award Nominee, Kurt Elling at the Illinois Reception during the Democratic National Convention in Boston. She has also opened and performed for well-known Cape Verdean musician Agusto Cego and vocalist Maria DeBarros.  In addition, she has performed with several accomplished Cape Verdean musicians such Kalu Monteiro and Djim Job.
Candida Rose is currently working on a CD entitled “Cabo Americana: The Sum of Me”, which will combine her Cape Verdean musical roots with her American influences (particularly jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel). This CD will also show off some of her songwriting, composing, arranging and production talents and skills. The CD will include performances by noted Cape Verdean musicians Carlos “Kalu” Monteiro and Djim Job and will feature performances by well-known jazz saxophonist Javon Jackson and bassist/guitarist Santi Debriano among others. Her CD will be released in January 2006.
 
Candida Rose's impressive range and her broad repertoire have been enriched by over 20 years of performances and, more recently, by experiences derived from her focused work as a music/choir director, arranger, and composer with the Union Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir, the former Heavenly Spirit Young Adult Community Choir and New Bedford YMCA's Youth Choir. She currently teaches an all-boy choir at New Bedford's Nativity Preparatory School.

In addition to her church choir work, her gospel credits include solo performances with the National Center of Afro-American Artists' production of Langston Hughes' “Black Nativity”. She has also been a member of New England Conservatory's “Millennium Choir” which has performed with gospel music notables such as Richard Smallwood.

Her work as a vocalist for various civic events, including her performance for the New Bedford visit of the Cape Verdean Ambassador, has earned her the New Bedford Branch, “NAACP, Artistic Service Excellence Award”.

Always adding to evidence showing her vocal versatility, Candida Rose recently portrayed sultry vocalist “Sade” at the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford as opening act for a tribute concert honoring legendary reggae artist “Bob Marley”.

Candida Rose’s current Cape Verdean music endeavors include a guest solo performance for world music artist Maria DeBarros’ CD release party at the Venus Di Milo in Swansea, MA and second guest appearance at the Onset Cape Verdean festival produced by Ms. Debarros. Candida Rose was among other up-and coming and well-known New England based Cape Verdean vocalists. She has also performed for shows sponsored by noted Cape Verdean vocalists Lutchinha, Calu Bana and Rosa Mestre. Her performances include original material co-written by David Ndiaye of New England’s popular BISCA Band, as well as traditional Cape Verdean songs. In addition, Candida had the honor of representing New Bedford’s Cape Verdean/American community by performing the U.S. National Anthem during opening ceremonies of an international conference in Washington, DC entitled “Connecting the Global Caboverdiano Nation”. She was also chosen to sing for the New Bedford visit of the Cape Verdean Prime Minister, as well as being chosen to sing for the dedication of the New Bedford U.S. Post Office in honor of Cape Verdean/American Judge George N. Leighton.

Candida Rose's resonant singing voice continued to grow ever more artful during her course of study at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, from which she has graduated “Magna Cum Laude” with a Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in Music (African-American/World music) and a minor in African and African/American Studies. Under the guidance of artist/educators such as: Santi Debriano, Marcelle Gauvin, John Harrison III, Tim Harbold, royal hartigan, Semenya McCord and Andy McWain, she was active in several ensembles, including the UMASS Dartmouth Gospel Choir, the UMASS Dartmouth Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Creative Arts Jazz Ensemble, and the Kekeli African Drum and Dance Ensemble. Her final senior recital represented all of her musical influences from gospel, jazz/blues, and Cape Verdean cultural roots, and included several original compositions. Candida also had the honor of singing the U.S. National Anthem during UMASS Dartmouth’s 2005 graduation ceremony from which she graduated. She has also added to her jazz vocal education endeavors by participating in workshops such as “JAZZ IN JULY” at UMASS Amherst under the instruction of world-renowned jazz vocal artist Sheila Jordan.

Candida Rose has performed at noted jazz clubs such as The Good Life, and Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge. In addition, in connection with Boston’s prestigious gala celebration “Steppin’ Out for Dimock”, she has sung at Scullers Jazz Club and performed as part of the Manny Santos Quintet at Boston’s Back Bay Sheraton along with artists such as the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Oleta Adams, and Bobby Caldwell, and Andre Ward.  You can currently catch a “Candida Rose” performance at spots such as, Phatt Boys Restaurant in Stoughton and Cambridge, MA and Joe and Maria’s Restaurant and Lounge in Norwood, MA. She also performs at Capriccio's in downtown Providence and has performed at Foxwood's B.B. KING Nite Club.

Whether at a gospel revival, jazz night, or Cape Verdean fundraiser, Candida Rose continues to amaze audiences with her diverse vocal performances. But more importantly, she reaches out with her heart and soul and touches everyone in her presence. Wherever you happen to catch her performance, be prepared to catch your breath!

For information please log on to: www.goldenrosemusic.com

O nosso principal objectivo é trazer algo de novo e diferente para a nossa cultura, um "Pop Rock" e uma filosofia que parte do positivismo, tentando levar uma boa mensagem de crítica para o entretenimento do povo, dando-lhes motivo para dançar, saltar, criticar, informar, sensibilizar, etc., visto serem o nosso público principal.

Somos organizados, gostamos de espectáculos ao vivo, estamos ganhando terreno, pois, temos uma "Lei de Banda", temos o nosso site na Internet www.primitivecv.cjb.net desde Fevereiro 2004 afim de estar-mos em proximidade com o Mundo Fora, donde temos recebido bastantes criticas. Dedicamos e estudamos para servir o nosso povo e a nossa cultura através das nossas músicas, porque amamos este país como ninguém e tentamos identificar em qualquer parte como Cabo-verdianos, sempre em qualquer espectáculo ou digressão e alertar o publico a nossa identidade.

Elementos da Banda:

Voz & Percussão: Adilson Correia (Sr. Ady Cabrer)
Guitarra 1: Paulo Vieira (Sr. Bobsstingkm)
Guitarra 2: Bruce Silva (Sr. Bruce Cross)
Guitarra Baixo: César Freitas (Sr. Fodja Chamberlein)
Bateria & Percussão: Raul Monteiro (Sr. Raus Hendrix)
(Ver anexo)

Músicas:
Primitive tem um vasto repertório de já arranjados e outros improvisos alternativos sem nomear os que surgem no momento onde geralmente temos a duração de 1H30/2H00 de concertos e sempre solicitado "BIS" pelo publico onde maioria das actuações esteve sempre um bom público verificando um certo espanto dessa parte, ficando sempre deslumbrados e surpreendidos com os ritmos fortes, temas e melodias das nossas composições.

Neste momento estamos gravando apenas 3 temas inéditos, não um disco, por enquanto, pois não possuímos verbas para tal e não temos apoio de ninguém, sobrevivemos e insistimos graças ao nosso grande amor pela música e por PRIMITIVE. Esses 3 temas temas destinam-se principalmente para nossa divulgação e para ter-mos um Trabalho para apresentar quando solicitado. Adquirimos os nossos instrumentos e equipamentos por conta própria e sem nenhum patrocínio. A banda no total é os elementos do grupo.

To entertain him, Nhô Djonsinho handed Zérui a Guiro “ reco-reco ” to make him feel part of the crew. This interesting gesture somehow inspired the then immature Zérui, who began taking music more seriously. He learned to play the cavaquinho when he was 10 years old and it was around that time that he joined “Sodadi,” a local band, which performed at local dance halls on Thursday and Friday evenings. Ironically, his band mates thought he was too young to play such a high-status instrument! He then turned to his cousin Kim Alves who taught him the tricks of a guitar.

Feeling more confident about his ability, Zérui founded the band “Bem Be Djaz” with his friends Dida, Nenei and cousin Kim. At 16, he immigrated to the United States where he immediately became the bassist for “Arpa Sound,” a band formed by well-known vocalist Frank De Pina. He then united with “Os Pecos” before joining the band “Ice” in 1993, with whom he recorded “ Sonho ,” (Dream) a song he wrote and interpreted.

With “ Sonho ,” Zérui officially became a songwriter, a singer, and at the same time stretched his own wings as a musical whiz kid. Shortly after performing with “Os Pecos,” Zérui founded his own band, “Netinhos Di Vóvó,” a band which soon became one of the most demanded in Capeverdean communities throughout New England . Zérui, however, finds it fulfilling to share the stage with other Capeverdean artists. Zérui has performed with Capeverdean musical giants such as Bana, Tito Paris, and Paulino Vieira as well as Angolan superstar, Bonga.

He has joined Norberto Tavares, Nhô Djonsinho and his Sons in Cape Verde , and Maria De Barros all over the United States and Canada . He also performed with Fantcha at the Hollywood Bowl, Chicago World Music Festival, and Summer Stage in New York . In 1996, he released his first solo project “ E Si Ké Mundu ,” (That's the way world is) produced by Kin Alves. In 1998, Zé Rui followed with “ Natural ,” an album which confirmed his status as a multifaceted artist. He now introduces “ Nha Luz, ” (My light) his most ambitious album, filled with illustrious and diverse styles and rhythms. This album is an authentic representation of the captivating melodies of the Cape Verde Islands , with an additional track of pulsating “ Semba ” from Angola.

Após "Rapública", Boss AC assinou diversos espectáculos memoráveis um pouco por todo o país e foi provavelmente um dos intervenientes dessa compilação mais assediado pelas editoras.

Entretanto, foi espalhando os seus créditos em participações e em “cameos” em trabalhos de gente como os Da Weasel, Delfins, Xutos e Pontapés entre muitos outros.

Em Novembro de 1997 Boss AC deslocou-se aos Estados Unidos para, juntamente com Troy Hightower gravar as faixas que iriam compôr "Mandachuva", o seu primeiro album.

Hightower, um dos mais requisitados engenheiros de som nos Estados Unidos, trabalhou com pesos pesados da indústria musical entre eles , os De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Janet Jackson , U2 só para citar alguns.

Tudo se expõe em "Mandachuva", principalmente o imenso talento de Boss AC que foi também o produtor deste álbum.O que imediatamente lhe deu um lugar único no nosso panorama musical. Entre 1998 e 2002 , já com a sua produtora montada, a No Stress , foi explorando a sua faceta de produtor , trabalhando com diversos artistas ao lado do seu sócio e companheiro de luta , Gutto.

Em Dezembro de 2002 , chega ás lojas o seu mais recente trabalho , “Rimar contra a maré”.

Em “Rimar contra a maré” , AC expôs-se uma forma muito mais pessoal e fez o que chama de “ um disco real que fala de gente real com problemas reais”.

O album totalmente produzido e gravado por AC , teve ainda a colaboração de Gutto e as misturas de Troy Hightower , em duas faixas.

Foi sem dúvida , um dos maiores sucessos de 2003 , sendo o seu primeiro single “Baza, Baza” reconhecido de Norte a Sul do país, muito por graça dos muitos concertos e da massiva difusão radiofónica do tema.

O segundo single “Quieres dinero” foi lançado em Novembro e promete fazer muito sucesso , com o atractivo de ter um dos videos mais originais alguma vez feito em Portugal.

O video , completamnete feito em animação, produzido pela Animago , empresa que esteve á frente da série de animação da RTP , “Major Alvega”

Enfim, Boss AC regressa em forma e com força. Muita força. para “Rimar contra a maré”. E AC prova essa mesma força a cada faixa, a cada rima, a cada sílaba... AC é um artista maior.

A major part of his work consists into classical composition such as «Danças de Câncer» suite for symphony orchestra, 6 symphonies, works for classical guitar, string quartet , chamber music, solo instruments pieces, symphonic electronica music, new age, ambient, improvisation, world-roots.

VASCO MARTINS began to express his electronic musical thoughts and imaginary world in Paris, 1981. Using analogic and digital synthesizers, mixed with acoustic instruments and percussion, samples and natural soundscapes, he has created an original music, rooted in Western and Greek modes, Cape Verdean grooves and soul , African, Touareg scales, and Oriental sounds .This project already includes 10 CDs .

He plays piano, keyboards, acoustic and electric guitar , which he uses also in his different live concert projects . As a musicologist , his wide knowledge of traditional Cape Verdean music. His work is deeply inspired by spiritual ideas, reflecting the natural landscapes of these desert islands in the middle of the ocean . Using the strong vibrations of his natural environment to create music and perform his concerts and works, he believes in the ability of the artist to synthesize cosmic energies and, thus transmit the hidden voices of the soul.

Times change. At the beginning of the following decade, it was no longer possible to play deaf—Cape Verdean music is finally finding its place on the world map of dance music. Living in Lisbon, Tito Paris has been an active participant in this emergence. A fine guitarist, songwriter and singer with a sunny swing, he would carry the joyful or melancholy elans of Cape Verdean music everywhere, at the same time attesting to Portugal’s cosmopolitan nature and the African territory of its capital.

When Cesaria Evora recorded her first album, Tito Paris was there. He wrote a song for her (‘Regresso’), conceived arrangements and played numerous instruments. This was a step, a memorable moment, but not the beginning. His history and involvement in music go back way before that—in fact, to the very day of his birth (30th May 1963) in Mindelo, the principal city on the island of São Vicente. When you’re born into a family where everyone is somewhat musical, it’s hard to escape music.

Not having any more resistance than the next guy, Tito Paris also succumbed. He had music in his heart as much as in his soul. If he strolls down memory lane, he remembers his escapades in bars, unbeknownst to his mother, taking advantage of his father’s absences when the latter, a sailor, was off on the bounding main. The kid was not yet ten and knee-high to a grasshopper at the time, always dragging around his guitar on which his sister had taught him a first chord.

He played with his brothers and cousin Bau, already quite skilful on the cavaquinho and who would also become famous later on. He profited from the advice, know-how and acquaintances of the clarinettist Luis Morais and the pianist Chico Serra. After the night clubs, cafés and cabarets of Mindelo, Tito Paris was going to be born a second time.

At the age of 19, he left for Lisbon, summoned by Bana, a great Cape Verdean singer who had settled there and who brought him to Portugal to play in his group, Voz de Cabo Verde. From that moment on, with his head full of dreams, Tito Paris began his great adventure. It began with a brief disappointment: he thought he was going to play bass, but was offered drums.

He was on the point of giving up and even going back to Cape Verde, when chance smiled on him. The bass player left, and Tito was able to take his place. Four years passed, and he decided it was time to leave Voz de Cabo Verde, with which he had grown up musically, thanks in particular to Paulinho Viera.

He became one of the most prominent names on the Cape Verde scene in Lisbon, as well as one of the most sought-after musicians, accompanying the finest, like Dany Silva, who encouraged him to take up the guitar definitively. He would also be seen collaborating with numerous Portuguese artists, including Rui Veloso.

In 1985, he produced his first album by himself. This was solely instrumental record and focussed the spotlight on his talents as a guitarist. He formed his own group and, in 1994, recorded Dança mi criola, the calling card with which he made himself known throughout the diaspora of the Cape Verde community.

It also became, and has remained up to the present day, his favourite song, the one everyone requests in concert. In Lisbon, he frequently performed in the cellar of the Enclave, his restaurant-club, or at B. Leza, another meeting place of the African community in the capital. This disc was followed by Graça de Tchega in 1996, then two live albums, including 27 de Julio 1990, which was released last year.

Between these various recordings, the ambience-master of Lisbon’s Black nights has visited quite a few countries, his travels taking him from Oslo to New York and from Louisiana to Paris.

Guilhermina, the new album, prolongs the pleasure of the previous ones or, even better, magnifies it and gives it wings. Here, gorged with the blues, his voice asserts itself, present and instinctive, while the guitar displays an eloquence ever more fascinating. From inexpressible melancholy to coarse hip-swaying, with large traits of sadness and fruited scents…

All of that is to be found in Guilhermina, i.e., mornas tinged with saudade, that sorrowful serenity, that nostalgia that constantly imbues Cape Verdean music, but also coladeiras and funana, joyous propositions and temptations to dance. Tito Paris adapts these emblematic styles of Cape Verde in his own fashion.

Accompanied by his regular group, joined by numerous guests artists and a string quartet, he slows down or speeds up the rhythm, here introducing an Angolan rhythm, there another from northern Portugal, making a detour by Mozambique or evoking the samba of Brazil.

Although he is anxious to preserve the singularity, the Creole genius and the tradition of the music of Cape Verde, Tito Paris, an enthusiastic volunteer ambassador of the musical soul of his country, also knows how to open doors and windows and build bridges. He invents without ever forgetting where he comes from.

Born in 1964 on the island of Sao Nicolau, Teofilo came to France at the age of 13 and began teaching himself to play the guitar and to write his own music. At 17 he discovered traditional music through his joint African and Portuguese background and started to play in local-community festivals.

In 1991 the producer Jose da Silva accepted three of his songs for Cesaria Evora's biggest hit album "Miss Perfumado". In 1995 Cesaria again chose one of his songs for Emir Kusturica's film "Underground".

Teofilo's schedule has been getting ever busier and he moves easily between Cape Verde restaurants in Paris and prestigious international venues.

Teofilo's work strikes new ground in the tradition of Cape Verde music with his bitter-sweet mornas sung in an up-beat way, his livelier and often more satirical coladeiras, without forgetting his nostalgic waltzes and mazurkas also sung in the Portuguese Creole of Cap-Verde called "kriolu".

They all express the same "sodade", that untranslatable poetic feeling that tells of "a huge love that smothers this little country", a dreamlike vision of the archipelago that is also the Eden of his childhood.

Teofilo adds Brazilian influences to his music as well as drawing on the rich sounds of jazz. His voice tantalizes with its velvet tones, and his melodies drift over the listener like a gentle summer breeze, carried by supple and generous rhythms, stirring a lazy desire to dance.

At a very early age, he began to perform alongside his father, Nho Raul Andrade, a highly popular violinist. Tcheka was in good hands. Every wrong note brought a rap on the knuckles from his father's bow, but he learned quickly and soon made his mark at dances, weddings, baptisms and so on. However, the boy had other ambitions. At 15, he began to develop a more personal style, based on batuku, one of Santiago Island 's more popular beats, originally played by women. One of the first pieces he wrote, " Man'ba des bes kumida dâ," gave a clear idea of the musical path he wished to follow. His aim was to widen the appeal of batuku , turning it into a beat that everyone would love.

In the meantime, a man must earn his living. Tcheka left his rural home and went to live in the Capital, Praia , where he became a cameraman for national television, a job that involved travel and broadened his horizons. In Praia , Tcheka met journalist Julio Rodrigues and co-wrote number of songs with him. The two played informally in the bars of the capital and other musicians soon joined them: percussionist Pery , bassist Kizo , flautist Robert Pemberton (a Scotsman who lived in Cape Verde ) and, more recently, percussionist Raul.

Today, Tcheka is well-known in Praia for his work in modernizing " batuku ,"
in much the same way as Katchas updated Funana , the other great Santiago beat, in the seventies. Providing a new reading of batuku while conserving its traditional structures is the message of Tcheka's debut album, "Argui" (stand up").

Born on November 10th, 1975, in Cape Verde, Suzanna Lubrano and her parents moved to the Netherlands when she was four. She started to sing when she was still a young child, but picked up singing professionally when she was eighteen, as part of the popular Capeverdean band Os Rabelados with whom she reached great success. Soon, Suzanna started a solo career releasing her debut album Sem bó nes mund, the successful follow up Fofó and the latest one, Tudo pa bo in 2002.

On Tudo pa bo (Everything for you) Suzanna not only worked with Jorge do Rosario, Dabs Lopes and Beto Dias, as she has done on her previous albums, but also pursued her collaboration with the Caribbean Master of Zouk, Ronald Rubinel, who had previously invited her to participate on his Jeux de Dames and Zouk me Love compilations.

Suzanna has since become one of the most demanded Capeverdean female singers within the Afro-Portuguese communities around the world. She frequently performed live on stage in France, Luxemburg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. She also performed on stage in the United States, her home country the Netherlands, and has attracted large audiences with her performances in Cape Verde, Angola, Senegal, and Mozambique.

Since the music industry in Mozambique has officially started to track CD sales, Suzanna has received both a Golden and Platinum CDs. In Angola, many songs of Suzanna’s latest album, Tudo pa bo, were on top of the playlists of all major radio stations. Last august her performance at the famous Baia das Gaitas Festival on the Island of Sao Vicente, Cape Verde, was broadcasted live by the Portuguse Satellite Television.

Later that month she performed, alongside Julio Iglesias, at the birthday celebrations of Angolan President, Eduardo Dos Santos, in Luanda, Angola. In December 2003, she became the Queen of Africa when she won the prestigious Kora All African Music Award for both Best West African Female and Best African Female.

Suzanna's music can be best described as a fusion of Zouk, R&B, reggae and other foreign influences. Most of her songs are in Capeverdean Creole, which is closely related to the Portuguese language. Suzanna writes most of her own songs in cooperation with Jorge Do Rosario, Dabs, Beto Dias, Ronald Rubinel and others. She admires artists such as Laura Fabian, Aaliyah, Whitney Houston and Toni Braxton.

Having passed a great number of years playing in the clubs, festivals and other venues, Splash! was finally ready to launch out on the international market. Thanks to the artistic and musical direction of Djoy Delgado, the group was quickly in position to record its own music. In 1996, Splash! thus launched their first Cd entitled "Simplicidade."

Music of Splash! is influenced by the many styles Cape Verdean music: Morna, Coladera and Funana in particular. But Splash! is also known for their mix of reggae, zouk and salsa. With their recording "Nha Terra K' Tchuva " members of Splash! stongly proven their skill to intertwine musical elements of various origins since an sense of American soul can be found in it.

The album "Nha Terra K, Tchuva" marked the international recognition of Splash!. Indeed, thanks to this disc, the group obtained a money making album in Europe.

Today, Splash! continue has to gain its popularity throughout the world. Their new album "Contradicao" presents a conglomeration of traditional and contemporary styles.

Licenciada em contabilidade pelo ISCAL, Sofia deixou para trás esta carreira para se dedicar a tempo inteiro à sua grande paixão - a música, depois de ter vencido, em 2003, a primeira edição do concurso televisivo "Operação Triunfo", que lhe permitiu o início de uma carreira a solo com a gravação de um CD com temas originais.

Apesar de a sua carreira a solo se ter iniciado após a vitória na "Operação Triunfo", Sofia já possuía um apreciável curriculum na área da música:

- Em 1995 participou no programa da RTP1 "Selecção de Esperanças", tendo chegado até à primeira eliminatória;

- Em 1996 participa no programa da SIC "Cantigas da Rua", tendo interpretado "That's What Friends Are For" na primeira eliminatória.

Participa também no concurso da RTP1 "Casa de Artistas" com a sua irmã Sónia, interpretando "Sinfonia do Amor" e onde chegou até à segunda eliminatória;

- Em 1997/98 foi finalista do concurso/programa "Chuva de Estrelas", interpretando, no Coliseu dos Recreios de Lisboa, o tema "Get Here" de Oleta Adams;

- No ano de 1998 participa no Festival RTP da Canção, alcançando um honroso 3º lugar, interpretando o tema "Uma Lua em Cada Mão" com música de Jorge Quintela e letra de José Fanha;

- Entre 1998 e o ano 2000 participou também em alguns espectáculos da digressão do "Chuva de Estrelas" num projecto criado por alguns antigos concorrentes deste programa da SIC;

- Já em 1999 integra o projecto "Shout", que se define como um grupo de "gospel".

No ano 2000 Sofia apresenta-se como solista do grupo coral "Natura", pertencente ao Instituto da Água;

- Sofia, em 2001, participa na gravação do CD "Human Faith" do projecto "Shout";

- Entre os anos de 2002 e 2003, actou no "Du'arte Garden" no Casino do Estoril de 5ª a Sábado como solista e "back-vocal";

- De 1995 a Fevereiro de 2003 o seu envolvimento em diversos projectos ficou marcado pelas gravações de diversos CD's em que participou:

- "Zona Quente", Paulo Flores, Fernando Santos, Fernando Girão (projecto "Sem Papel"), Filipe Raposo e Clement ("Exaltai") e com Ian Vandick (telenovela "Jóia d'África").

Em Maio de 2002, resolve inscrever-se nos "castings" para a primeira edição do concurso da RTP1 "Operação Triunfo", tendo sido apurada e onde integrou o grupo dos 16 alunos da escola de música que a levaria à vitória absoluta depois de quatro meses e 15 Galas.

A 5 de Julho de 2003 inicia e integra a tournée de verão da "Operação Triunfo", actuando em 21 palcos diferentes por todo o Portugal continental, Açores, Madeira e também nas ilhas de Santiago e Sal do arquipélago cabo-verdiano. A tournée iniciara-se em Lisboa e terminaria também em Lisboa, mas desta feita no Coliseu dos Recreios, com transmissão directa através da RTP1, RTPi e RTP África.

Sofia inicia, entre Lisboa e Londres, a gravação do seu primeiro CD de originais a solo em Outubro de 2003, mês que ditará o verdadeiro início da sua carreira como cantora profissional a solo e em Novembro do mesmo ano lança o seu trabalho intitulado "Contrastes" com a chancela BMG.

Outros interesses

Sofia é uma pessoa simples e modesta, lutadora por natureza, persegue os seus sonhos até os conseguir realizar.

Os seus gostos são simples como ela própria. Girassóis, Malmequeres e Lírios são as suas flores preferidas, especialmente no seu habitat natural e daí também a sua preferência por aromas florais.

Embora as flores que prefere sejam mais predominantes na Primavera, é o Outono a estação de que mais gosta e as suas cores preferidas o laranja, o preto e os azuis-claros.

A água é a sua bebida preferida e álcool é algo que não consome.

Nos seus tempos livres, gosta de descansar, passear, estar com a família e os amigos e sempre que lhe é possível, viaja. Embora não seja pessoa de grandes hábitos de leitura, gosta de livros policiais e suspense.

Um dos seus passatempos preferidos é ir às compras, especialmente para comprar roupas e sapatos.

A sinceridade e a amizade são dos valores humanos que mais preza, possuindo, como nativa do signo Balança, uma enorme capacidade para lidar com situações difíceis mas sempre com diplomacia e justeza.

While most groups from Cape Verde play old compositions with electronic instruments, Simentera composes new pieces for acoustic instruments and to highlight their breathtaking voices. A local newspaper dubbed them as "The new face of the other Cape Verdean music and the other face of the new Cape Verdean music."

"If we don't modernize our music we will end up with a museum-piece in the same way as has already happened in many places around the world," says de Sousa. "A music which has an ethnographic value and thus ceases to be the expression of a popular feeling."

Members of Simentera come from many walks of life. Not only are they accomplished musicians, they also work in a variety of professions including law, architecture, engineering, medicine, and others. They are one of the few Cape Verdean groups committed to living in their country forever. This may sound like an odd distinction, but the forces they are up against are enormous.

Cape Verde was the last African nation to gain independence from European colonial powers-a factor that has contributed to enthusiasm in national identity. Simentera is dedicated to maintaining this newfound identity and has started a foundation for musical preservation. The Simentera Foundation aims to establish a cultural center, a music school for children, and a CD shop that will promote Cape Verdean artists.

After winning the two important music contests in Portugal, in 1994, Sara Tavares recorded her first album “Sara Tavares & Shout”, released in 1996. To present the album she performed all over Portugal, Cape Verde, and France.

By the end of 1998, Sara Tavares decided to start working on her new album. To achieve that, she stopped performing, and went through a long period of introspection to search for her real roots and influences.

As a result of such profound search, “Mi Ma Bô” was born. “Mi Ma Bô”, which translated from the criolo (language from Cape Verde) means “Me and You”, is an intimist album, where Sara’s voice appears as the link to all the emotions expressed in its lyrics and melodies.

In this record, besides the singer, Sara Tavares introduces herself as a composer and co-producer, which leaves us with the secure and nice impression of her maturity, her talent and of the long career she has in front of her.

“Mi Ma Bô” was produced by Lokua Kanza, a musician from Congo, living in Paris, who had previously worked with other African artists such as Ray Lema, Manu Dibango, Papa Wemba, Miriam Makeba and Youssou N'dour. Together with Sara’s co-production, they give us a final result of a very special album, with african colours and a touch of soul, that ends up by really touching our soul.

Sang in three different languages (Portuguese, Criolo and English), “Mi Ma Bô” really shows us how universal is the language of music. The album reached gold status in Portugal.

“Morango do Nordeste”, in the work of DJ Beleza, came out in December of 2000 as Roger’s talisman. “That song really projected me further”, he states emphasizing when he says that, “not me not even the producers thought it would have that success”. “Morango do Nordeste” is a Brazilian song written decades ago but readapted into Zouk rhythm to fit well in the modern Cape Verdean music. This song presents a wonderful rapport between the lyrics and the keyboards giving the listener a delightful sense of a duet. When asked if readapting foreign melodies into CV rhythms is indeed a surplus for the music of the islands, he underlines, “perhaps commercially, but not traditionally”. Traditionally, Roger displays his satisfaction with the course Funana is taking, embarking CV culture to higher dimensions, and he praises the work of the band Ferro Gaita.

However born in Guinea Bissau by a Senegalese mother, Roger is son of Cape Verdean Violinist from Sao Nicolau, the fantastic island in the book of Germano Almeida and the cradle of Morna in the believe of many Cape Verdeans. He did most of his growing ups in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. In Dakar, home to many Cape Verdeans in the Diasporas, he became keen to the culture of his father’s homeland. Away from his Cape Verdean roots, he cherished his CV identity mostly through music. When ask how he kept dear his CV culture, he replied, “Cape Verdeans won’t lose their culture even living in Japan”.

His very first big hit entitled “Menina Bo e Bela”, (Girl you’re Beautiful) was recorded in 1988 in the album “Sucha” by the band “Dalssif”. Formed on the streets of Dakar, “Dalssif “ began by performing in restaurants until a CV producer living in France discovered and promoted us”, Roger explains his debut in music. The year 1988 was also the date of the artist’s very first contact with Cabo Verde, his daddy’s homeland. After 1993, Roger moved to Europe where he lived most of those years in Holland but also in France and Portugal. However having traveled and met new peoples and cultures around the world, Roger tells CVMUSICWORLD.com, “my heart remains in Africa, in Cabo Verde, Senegal, Guinea…”.

A lover of Jazz concerts and Salsa music but always true to his CV musical roots, Roger integrated in the Cape Verdean band Splash of Grace Evora and Dina Medina stationed in the Netherlands, only for a short period that lasted from January to June of 2000. He tells Visaonews.com “I learned a lot with Splash, but it wasn’t taking me anywhere”. “Our perception of music was different and I had to leave to develop my own”, he laments that episode of his career.

His genuine style of music would reveal itself when he released his first solo album “Calor Pessoal”, (Personal warmth) in June of 2000. The album includes hit such as “Amy”, written and sang by Roger in Wolof. This song that is a love story reached the top of music in Senegal. “Nos Dilema” (Our Dilemma), “Calor Pessoal”, and “Amar e Ser Amado” (To Love and To Be Loved) are other love stories that contributed to the success of the album. However, Roger confides his predilection and reveals that “Loira” (Blond) is his favorite track in the album. Written and produced by him, “Loira” is an expression of an Aphrodite type of love and beauty: “Blond, between Blue Ocean and sunshine, words are missing to express your charms; my love for you won’t change for eternity”, he recites.

His latest hit “Mel” (Honey) was recorded in the album “Cabo Verde in Love2” in the beginning of the year 2001. “Honey, your mouth has honey with an endless pleasure”, says a verse of the song that again confirms Roger instincts to write poetic lyrics.

Growing up, he managed to learn four languages simultaneously to become a fluent tetra-lingual singer. He writes lyrics and sings songs in Cape Verdean Creole, French, Wolof (a Western African language) and Portuguese. But he acknowledges, “my first language is Cape Verdean Creole”, with a Barlavento’s accent. With a magical spell, he applies well the wolof verbal pitch to the rhythm of Cape Verdean music and to the melody of the Portuguese and French tongues to perform the modern Western African music with finesse. “It is an Afro style of singing”, he confirms. “My style is a nuance of different rhythms and melodies in Western Africa”, which reflects the artist’s diverse cultural background, but with headquarters in Senegal, the land that nurtured his youth.

The sharp timbre of his powerful voice sounds as if coming from somewhere in a nearby oasis. His golden voice streams from his lips as if a sound refinery devise has been installed in the gold mine of his vocal cords. It is a unique voice that must be the synergy of all the tongues he speaks. The voice with the pitch of Youssou N’dour in Senegal, with the accent of Grace Evora from Sao Vicente and the melody of Dom Kikas in Angola is peculiar to Roger. His diverse cultural background, the compilation of many musical styles in his works and the synthesis of his four vocal accents are the ingredients of his success in music, which is a seal blending together the Western African oral traditions.

For many people in Cape Verde, the process of gathering water is a daily ritual, as it was for the Ortet brothers who each day had to trek many kilometres from their house in a breathtaking green mountaintop area to the water source. Rabasa is the name of an old water source near Rui Vaz. This water source played an important role in the Ortet brothers’ childhood years, and so the name Rabasa symbolises the source of the rich Cape Verdean musical traditions, which are the basis and the inspiration for the music of Rabasa.

Rabasa’s origins also lie in Rotterdam, and the city’s multicultural society is reflected in the band members. Alongside the Ortet brothers, the band consists of vocalist Terezinha Fernandes of S. Lourenco dos Orgaos (Santiago), trumpet player Kabiné ’Tagus’ Traoré of Guinea Conakry, and Dutch/Surinamese percussionists Hans de Lange and Mike Shakison. Tagus formerly performed for many years in the legendary group les Ambassadeurs, one of the members of which was Salif Keita. Hans and Mike have a rich background in playing Cape Verdean music, having performed extensively with Americo Brito and been featured in concerts in the Netherlands by Bana, Ildo Lobo, Luis Morais, Manuel d’ Novas, Djozinha, Titina, Belinda and others. Hans has also been featured as guest percussionist with Splash.

Rabasa endeavours to disseminate Cape Verdean culture. Not only by playing music in concert halls and at festivals but also by giving classes on Cape Verdean culture and transferring knowledge of Cape Verdean music to young people. Music is an essential part of life of the Cape Verdeans. There are no celebrations, family events or church services without music. In this sense, Rabasa is part of a living tradition, one that is alive even in Rotterdam.

History

At the presentation of their first CD “Rabasa” in La Tentation in Brussels (1999), the concert began before a rapt audience. As the concert continued and Rabasa moved on to the batuque and then the funana, the public could no longer contain itself-- chairs were pushed aside and the party went on for many hours. As it turned out, this ritual was to be repeated at many venues to come.

Rabasa’s engagements have included the Tropen Instituut Theater Amsterdam, Zuiderpershuis Antwerpen, Concert- en congresgebouw de Doelen Rotterdam, Rasa Utrecht, Dunya Festival, Eruit markt Rotterdam, Uitmarkt Amsterdam, Amsterdam Roots Festival, Afrika Festival Hertme, Vereniging Nijmegen, Oosterpoort Groningen, Chassé Theater Breda and the Oeral Festival.

In September 2001, Rabasa played in Cape Verde for the first time before a frenzied crowd at the Cidade Velha festival on their own island of Santiago, and they were immediately invited back for the 2002 festival. Rabasa now plays every year at a number of festivals in their homeland.

Their first hit single “Si bo kre” (if you want to), from their debut album 4-voz (four voices), proved to critics that they had the vocal ability and raw talent to go on by combining sexual lyrics with contagious hooks.

After numerous shows worldwide, the group went back to the studio to record a second album. Although many didn’t think it would be able to top the first album, hits such as Ka Zanga (don’t get mad) and Joia (honey) from Quatro’s sophomore effort, “Bem Conche” (get to know us) elevated the band to number one spots on several African music charts. At the peak of their success, Quatro+ was awarded best group at the first annual Cabo Music Awards in 2002.

They achieved all of this without making a single video or any marketing/promotions. This will soon change now that they are signed with record label Miss Jane records. The band recently released their third album “ Ultimo Viagem” and at the same time announced the (likely) break of Quatro+.

Quatro+ members include: Nelson de Freitas, Nilton Ramalho, Edson de Freitas, Nelson Oliveira and Adilson Ben David.

Paul was also surrounded by Capeverdian music from the time of his birth. His late grandfather, Francisco Pena, and his father, Joaquim ("Jack") Pena, both professional musicians, filled the house with beautiful Capeverdean mornas, including those of Brava-born Eugenio Tavares, and Paul quickly learned to sing and play them.

When Paul was three years old, his parents found him at the family piano one day, playing songs that he had heard. Although he never had a lesson, he became an accomplished pianist. He also quickly mastered the guitar. After a few lessons, his instructor told him, "There's nothing more I can teach you!"

By his early teens, Paul was singing and playing professionally with his father. He branched out into other musical styles as well--flamenco, folk, rock, and Mississippi Delta blues.

After attending college for two years, and performing at the prestigious Newport Folk Festival, Paul began touring with his own band and playing with blues giants B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, and John Lee Hooker. He was one of the only musicians whom B.B. King would allow to play his beloved guitar "Lucille." In 1972, his debut album for Capitol Records received critical acclaim. He and his wife Babe moved to San Francisco.

Soon thereafter, however, Babe Pena became ill. Paul cut back his performing career and cared for her for the next fifteen years. She passed away in 1991, leaving him alone and inconsolable.

The Oscar-nominated film "Genghis Blues," released in 1999, documents Paul's triumph of spirit after this tragedy. For several years, he had been fascinated by the strange sounds he had heard one day on his short-wave radio: "throat-singing" from Tuva (an isolated region of Asia), in which several separate tones are voiced at the same time by one singer. Almost unknown to the outside world, throat-singing was a vocal style often used to express feelings of loss and sadness--in other words, "blues."

Desperate for something to ease his grief after his wife's death, Paul found a cassette of Tuvan throat-singing at an out-of-the-way music store. With only this cassette as his tutor, he taught himself Tuvan throat-singing, and began incorporating it into his performances.

Paul became so accomplished at Tuvan throat-singing that in 1995, this brave and gentle son of Cape Verde made what the New York Times termed "an arduous but triumphant journey" to Tuva, where he won first prize in a Tuvan throat-singing contest. He also won the hearts of the people of Tuva, where, even today, he is a national hero.

And if you watch the film "Genghis Blues," or listen to the "Genghis Blues" soundtrack CD, you will be reminded of the "roots" of Paul Pena's triumph: among the Tuvan blues and the Mississippi Delta blues, you will find Capeverdian "blues"--a morna ("Tras D'Orizao"). It is the most beautiful song on the CD, and it is the music that made all the rest of Paul's music possible.

"Genghis Blues" brought Paul new recognition, but his real-life blues did not end. In May 1999, just as "Genghis Blues" was wowing audiences at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Paul was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. But despite his illness, he appeared that summer at a concert in his honor at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, where fellow musicians praised him for his musical genius, his spirit of discovery, and for the influence that he had had on their lives.

At the end of the program, Paul appeared on stage, to roaring applause. Despite his pain, he sang--Tuvan blues, Mississippi Delta blues, and a morna that he had learned from his grandfather. His body was thin and weak, but his voice thundered throughout the large hall. And when he smiled at the huge audience that he could not even see, his face glowed.

Paul told his friends then that his one great wish was to "return" to Cape Verde--the same wish fervently expressed in so many of the mornas that he had sung all his life. But his doctors told him that he was too weak to travel anywhere, because, they said, he was dying. All medical attempts to save his life were abandoned, and he was placed in "hospice care."

A year later, Paul was weak, in excruciating pain, but still alive. His hospice nurse suggested that he get a "second opinion." In the fall of 2000, a new doctor looked at his case, and determined that he did not have pancreatic cancer after all, but acute inflammation of the pancreas. The death sentence was lifted, although Paul remains in a lot of pain to this day.

Nonetheless, his life now has many happy moments, as more people discover him and his music. He has toured nationally, and has appeared at blues festivals and on the Conan O'Brien Show. He has also been the subject of several radio documentaries.

His music is found on two CDs: The "Genghis Blues" soundtrack album (Six Degrees), and "New Train" (Hybrid Recordings). ("New Train" is a collection of folk, blues, and R&B songs that he wrote and recorded in 1973; it was finally released in 2000.)

In the future, Paul would like to record an album of mornas. And he still hopes to journey someday to his homeland of Cape Verde.

Filha de pais cabo-verdianos, aos 4 meses foi viver para Cabo Verde, onde viveu ate aos 14 anos. E foi aqui que despertou a sua paixão pela musica, cantando entre amigos e em casa, acompanhada pelo pai, ao violão.

Aos 14 anos Nancy vem para Lisboa para continuar os seus estudos.

Enquanto os estudos decorrem, Nancy continua a cantar entre amigos e é em 1995 que canta pela primeira vez em publico, num concurso, do qual saiu vencedora. O prémio foi à gravação do seu 1º disco "Nos Raça".

"Nos Raça", chamou de imediato a atenção do povo Caboverdiano e na diáspora. A voz doce e grave de Nancy começa a marcar pontos e desde então tem sido convidada a estar em palco com os nomes mais sonantes da musica de Cabo Verde, nomeadamente, Bana, Tito Paris, Boy Gê Mendes, Ferro Gaita,....

Ao mesmo tempo em que Nancy se aperfeiçoa artisticamente, ao lado dos maiores intérpretes de Cabo Verde, termina os estudos formando-se em sociologia.

Hoje, Nancy apresenta o seu segundo álbum de originais "Segred",com a produção musical do já consagrado músico e produtor, Toy Vieira, que contou com a colaboração nos arrajos e orquestração de Djim Job.

As a child growing up she never attended school and to this time never learned how to read or write. A tempting question is what would she have been today had she been literate? Two options are clear: She would have been corrupted by the colonial school system or would have risen as great a poet whose written work would have been known for generations to come. In any case she is a legendary finadera (rapper) that carries the message of her people through her own wisdom and common knowledge.

Of course, Nha Nacia Gomi never writes down her lyrics. This griot tradition of reciting ideas from one’s mind as remembered on the spot is an African legacy that has been passed down from generations to generations and is today very popular in the U.S. through the hip hop culture. Alike today’s rappers, Nha Nacia Gomi also competed with her peers on public events. The competition was judged on the processing speed of the finaderas, the philosophical content of the lyrics and the harmony of the verses.

She first rapped in a freestyle battle during a wedding celebration when she was only a young lady of 17 years. It was a challenging moment for her, because there was also a veteran finadera very well known. In addition, she wasn’t married then, which meant no respect towards her person, and she was underestimated by her older competitors. However, she was confident and sure of her capability. Then, she was up to the challenge for “the terrain belonged to no one,” she thought.

Since a young girl should not leave the party until morning—otherwise people would say she left with a man—she rapped until the next day’s sunlight. She was amazed at herself for she never imagined prior to that day that she had that much talent. No one ever taught her the skills she possesses in improvising the lyrics she raps. Nha Nacia Gomi herself does not know how to explain this God gifted talent. From that day on she never stopped rapping about the social fabrics surrounding her world. She was featured in weddings, public festivities and in cultural events.

Along her career as a finadera she has performed together with other great names of finason such as Nha Gida Mendi, Nha Knumazinha Mendi and Nha Bibinha Cabral.

She was raised under the Catholic principles and is today a follower of the Catholic Church. She attended the Sunday schools as a young lady and barely misses a Sunday mass. Because she possessed excellent short and long-term memory she learned everything fast and developed a great intellectual ability to understand the world around her which reflects on her finaçons (raps). After her father died, she remained the only child staying with her mother and yet to marry or have children and still loyal to her religious principles.

She finally married Paulino Correia de Oliveira returning emigrant from São Tomé and lived in Rubera Seka up to this day. The couple had four children, two girls and two boys. Three of their children died at young ages. The only one left, a girl name Maria Tereza, is about 28-years-old now.

Nha Nacia Gomi and her husband don’t have any property and always lived as a very poor couple. They both worked on someone else’s land and sometimes in government’s rural projects. Paulino was handicapped in the foot due to a work accident in Sao Tomé where he had emigrated as a contracted worker during the Portuguese colonization in Africa. .

In most of her finasons she talks about her financially impoverished life that is generated by the colonial system and then by the national government which had little concern with rural poverty. In one of her finasons she raps: Biba nos gobernu/Mas tambe e tem ki sabi/ saku basiu ka ta sakedu/Ma kalsa di un pe ka ta bistidu…, (Long live our government/But also it has to know/Empty sac won’t stand/single leg pant won’t dress…) Here Nha Nacio Gomi reminds that the people will not do it without the help of the government.

She also treats love in her finasons: Kel algen ki dja kredu/Dja kredu dja/Kel algen ki ka kredu/Ka mesti dida. (Whoever is loved/will be always loved/whoever is not loved/doesn’t even need to bother.) Social knowledge is also portrayed in many of her lyrics: Busca bida e na mosindadi/Keloki dja bedjo ka mesti mas/Na mare ki bu buska bida/Ki dja bu atchal/Konserba familia bu dikiri amigo, (You make your living in your youth/When you get old it is not worthy it/When you have made your living/Take care of your family/And make friends.)

Suzanna Lubrano the other lead singer from Vantage invited Milena to sing back up vocals on her solo album and that's when Milena got her first studio experience. When Vantage dismembered, Milena and her sister Nereida B. Tavares were invited to sing in a group named "Midnight" which also didn't last long. So Milena began performing back up vocals with the band "Splash", on tours.

They traveled the world including the USA, Angola, Mozambique, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, and Cape Verde. In 1995 she recorded a cover of "Hello" from Lionel Richie and sang lead-vocals on a Splash-original "Procura" (written by Grace Evora, Manu, and Milena herself) on the album Simplicidade. The audience loved these songs. Milena recorded her solo album Dor in 1996 while continuing her work with Splash.

Four tracks and two interludes on Dor were arranged by TxT. When the album was about to come out she was performing live in America. Shortly after it's release she got pregnant and decided to take some time off for her baby. Since then she recorded tracks for two more compilation CD's TxT Stars in 1998 and Glamour in 1999. She quit singing with Splash but managed to record another duet on a compilation CD Mobass in 1997, before her baby was born. She also has been busy recording her second solo album for about a year now, and hopes to have it finished very soon.

Singing on Suzanna Lubrano's debut album, "Sem bo nes mundo" was not quite what she expected. She learned a lot recording her first backing vocals for Suzanna and it opened some doors for her. One day, Jose Medina, (her brother and manager of Dina Medina, at that time) came to the studio while they were recording Sem bo nes mundo. Impressed by their work, he asked them to join "Splash", and so Milena did her first professional live performance in Holland with this band. It was a lot of fun and quite an experience for her. The groupmembers taught her a lot about performing live. On tour she had a lot of fun with Dina Medina, her friend and room mate.

This event was huge for Cape Verde , since music is one of the principal exported wealth for this small archipelago of ten islands lost in the Atlantic Ocean 500 kilometers of the coasts of Senegal . The young Mayra, who is today the figurehead of the rising generation of singers of her country, was born in Cuba from Capeverdean parents. Mayra lived in Senegal, in Angola, then in Germany.

At 13 years old, she was already noticed for her voice and her personality. She was selected to sing in Belgium during a conference dedicated to Dalaï LAMA' students. After her victory at the Francophonie in Canada, Mayra did not stop performing. She toured Cape Verde, in particular at Praia and Mindelo.

Then, in the mythical room the "Coliseu Dos Recreios" in Lisbon , she sang alongside Bau, former instrumentalist of Césaria Evora. It is in July 2002 that Mayra is invited for the very first time in France, to the Festival of Jazz of "Rendezvous de l'Erdre". On stage, at the sides of two great ladies of the international jazz, the New-Yorker Sheila Jordan and Armenian Datévik Hovanessian, Mayra obtained an enormous success.

She enchanted the Congress of the City of Nantes during the opening of the 24th International Festival of film of the three continents while singing "a Cappella". Then, it was at the "Festival de la Harpe" that Mayra was the headline for the first time. The invitations began to follow: at the Africajarc Festival, she performed beside Joe Zawinul, Ismael Lo, and Angélique Kidjo. She opened for Césaria Evora at New Morning in Paris, for Enrico Macias in the "Festopale" at Etaples and for the Cuban Ernesto Titos Puentes at the time of the "Festival of Jazz" of Valves.

Mayra imposes consequently her own style. She is astonishingly at ease with Morna, Funana, Coladera, and Batuque while adding a bit of jazz. Her personality and her talent bring a true new breath to the music of the islands of Cape Verde, heir of a mixture of rhythms of Africa, the Old man-Continent.

An invitation into the musical realm of Maria de Barros requires an intriguing, foundational geography lesson. The sensuous singer, currently making her recording debut with a multi-faceted project aptly titled Nha Mundo (My World), is a native of Dakar, Senegal in West Africa and lived for the first thirteen years of her life in Nouackchott, Mauritania in Northwest Africa. Her creative heart, however, lies in the culturally rich land of Cabo Verde, a former Portuguese colony located 350 miles off the coast of Senegal, the birthplace of her parents.

She uses colorful descriptions like "hospitable," "peaceful," "family oriented" and "hard work ethic" to describe her ancestral home, but it's the island's incredible melting pot of music--which includes everything from African and Portuguese to Argentinean and Cuban influences--that has always inspired her to set her heart on home.

de Barros is also the god-daughter of five-time world music Grammy nominee Cesaria Evora, the internationally renowned "barefoot diva" and global ambassador for Cape Verdean music. Evora is known as the queen of mornas, a very traditional music form. Evora's ongoing encouragement led de Barros to fashion, with the help of Argentine producer Daniel Luchansky and Cape Verdean co-producers Djim Job and Kalu Monteiro, a fresh, contemporary work featuring the more lively and optimistic side of modern Cape Verdean music.

"The title song talks about where I'm from, and it's my hope that everyone who listens feels that I've brought them into my world as a special guest," she says. "It's a happy, fun world. While Cape Verdean artists have sung of the struggles of life in the islands, my childhood was wonderful and I want to show that positive side of life in Cabo Verde. My songs speak of yearning for home, of an immigrant returning with hope, going back to the homeland to contribute to its growth. The only song written on a different theme is 'Nao Nhu,' which offers strength and encouragement to women.

"Sung mostly in the dialect of Portuguese "Criolu," the 12 songs on Nha Mundo draw from the many styles that became indigenous to Cabo Verde over the centuries. "DjaBraba Nha Terra Natal" and "Triste Gonia" are mornas (equivalent to the American blues) written by her grandfather, Djedjinho; "Riberonzinha" and "Nha Primero Lar" are slow coladeiras, while "Cabo Verde N'ot Era," "Regresa," "Mi Nada Um Ca Tem, "So Um Melodia" and "Nha Mundo" are midtempo and uptempo coladeiras (like Salsa); "La Gloria Eres Tu" is an old Cuban bolero, "Nao Nhu" a samba and "Manha de Carnaval" a Brazilian bolero.

"Music of the world infiltrated Cabo Verde after the Portuguese discovered the islands in the 1400's," says de Barros. "The African influence came there during the slave trade, while over time people from other parts of the world settled there and brought along their musical influences."

On how she developed her love for music, de Barros says: "I remember as a child, my mother would sing beautiful Cape Verdean songs to us kids. I would sing along with her and felt something magical within me.

"The oldest of five kids, de Barros moved with her family as a teenager to Providence, Rhode Island, where her grandparents lived. At the time, New England had many communities of transplants from Cabo Verde, and the teen singer performed with many bands featuring members from the homeland. Later, de Barros got married and moved to Los Angeles, which exposed her to a potpourri of rhythms thus enriching her musical experience. In Los Angeles, de Barros developed a love for Latin music and soon thereafter started to sing in Spanish, one of the six languages that de Barros speaks. At the same time, de Barros continued to perform on both coasts with old and new Cape Verdean musicians.

de Barros believes that the purpose of her music is to touch lives and see the smiles on the faces of her listeners when she is performing live. "It is my hope and sincere wish to expose people to the sensuality and joie de vivre that is the foundation of Cape Verdean life."

In 1982, he emigrated to Portugal, where he lived for three years, and where he set out to become a professional musician. Ever since he has been considered to be one of the best guitar players in the Cape Verdean history and has worked at various stages and clubs of African music in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 1985, he was asked to lead a group of musicians in Holland. He then moved from Lisbon to the Netherlands, where he has made a significant difference in the promotion of Capeverdean music. Manuel de Candinho called the attention of Capeverdean guitar players for the need to work on the technical evolution of CV music. He has indeed been a tutor to most CV guitar players, especially in Holland.

For years and years, he has played all over the world with a large variety of famous artists—whether traditional or contemporary. His excellence in music has granted him permission to arrange concerts for great CV artists such as Bana, Celina Pereira, Ildo Lobo, Djosinha, Titina, Jorge Sousa, Cesaria Evora, Gardénia and many more.

Recently, in april 2002, he performed in Tito Paris’ concert in the Capeverdean National Assembly. As a composer, his works are always in demand by almost all Cape Verdean musicians. Dozens of artists, traditional and modern, have requested his participation in their albums.

Manuel di Candinho has just released his latest work of art, titled ALMA & SOM, an instrumental album with acoustic music based on solo play and offering deeply-felt Capeverdean melodies. This album is an excellent piece of work, demonstrating the quality of who is an icon of CV culture. This is the kind of music you need to buy and have in your collection of great CV music.

O seu talento vocal, desde logo reconhecido, levou a jovem cantora a participar em diversos trabalhos discográficos de conceituados artistas africanos como Cesária Évora, Bonga, Tito Paris, Paulino Vieira, entre outros.

Em 1996 gravou o seu primeiro CD de originais "Nha Vida ", sendo, á excepção de um, todos os temas de sua autoria. "Nha Vida" passou a ser o cartão de visita de LURA, o que lhe valeu a participação em 1997 na compilação "Onda Sonora Red Hot + Lisbon", ao lado de nomes como David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Djavan, Teresa Salgueiro, Marisa Monte, António Chaínho, Alto Lindsay, etc. Em relação ao desempenho de LURA , refere David Eckman, vocalista dos Walkabouts:-" Existe ainda uma cantora cabo-verdiana chamada Lura, que escreveu a canção " Nha Vida " (...) o que é que lhe aconteceu ? Porquê que nenhum álbum dela foi até agora editado? É uma senhora deslumbrante! " ( Público,10 de Março 2000).

Actuou em diversos palcos como - Praça Sony, Grande Auditório do Centro Cultural de Belém, Assembleia da República de Cabo Verde, Centro UNESCO em Paris, Festivais em Cabo Verde, abertura dos concertos de Cesária Évora no Pavilhão Atlântico de Lisboa e Zenith de Paris integrada no projecto " Cesária & Friends".

Em 2001 foi cantora residente de um dos mais prestigiados programas da RTP1. Em 2002 foi convidada a integrar o elenco de cantores para a Gala do 45º aniversário da RTP e os 100 anos do Jornalista Fernando Pessa. Em Abril de 2002 editou pela Editora Lusáfrica, o seu 2º álbum " IN LOVE"
Este álbum contém 12(doze) temas, dos quais 7 (sete) são da autoria de LURA. O CD conta com a participação especial de Kimany Marley ( filho de Bob Marley)...

Em Julho de 2002 fez uma tourné por toda a Europa, integrada no Projecto "Cesária & Friends". Em Outubro de 2002 fez a primeira parte dos concertos de Cesária Évora , nos Coliseus do Porto e de Lisboa. Prepara-se agora para editar o seu próximo álbum acústico pela Editora Lusáfrica.

Kodé’s di Dona’s real name is Gregorio Vaz. He was born on July 10th, 1940, near São Domingos, in the heart of Santiago. As the youngest child in the family, he was given the nick-name Kodé di Dona, which means: “the lady’s [his monther’s] youngest”. The first years of his life coincided with the country’s worst famine, which culminated in 1947: then, as people were starving at the roadside, the toughest emigrated to survive. Kodé di Dona’s memory recorded all of this.

When he was seventeen, Kodé di Dona traded in a barrel of maize for his first diatonic accordion; at the time, this represented a fortune, and shows the extent of his musical vocation. At the age of nineteen, he barely escaped being shipped over to São Tomé, the island of “voluntary hard labour”. He tried every possible profession: stone breaker, lumberjack, fisherman, farmer. Today, he is a ranger in São Francisco, an isolated village situated about 12 miles from the capital, Praia.

Taken literally, the lyrics of the songs remain obscure. Eroticism, mockery, denunciation, memories of the past pain, are all hidden behind a screen of modesty or mischief, behind a coded language. Kodé di Dona’s voice is broken with the misery which is described in his songs, hoarse with cane alcohol abuse; it changes from mumbled pain to lively mockery, and skips over the chords of a mazurka or a samba. It is something of a paradox to watch the dancing couples of Santiago swinging gaily to the quick rhythm of a coladeira, when one knows that the words of the song are a lament on the sad fate of exile.

To support those rhythms, the accordionist could not do without his faithful companion, the ferrinho (or reco-reco) –player, tirelessly scraping his iron bar or corner iron with a simple kitchen knife. The sound of the reco-reco is reminiscent of that of the triangle. This instrument is another example of the Badiu’s ingenuity in finding ways around the ban against traditional percussion. In some Funana bands, the ferrino-player is also the singer, or the accordionist’s wife plays the reco-reco. Kodé di Dona’s own sons usually accompany him.

Today, Kodé di Dona plays on a diatonic accordion which was designed especially for him by the Maugein Company in Tulle: in 1994, when he participated in the “Nuits de Nacre”, in the French district of Correze, the audience was conquered by him to such an extent, that funds were spontaneously gathered so that an instrument could be made, which would be worth his art.

Raised in Pawtucket, RI, with no formal vocal training, the young songstress developed remarkable vocal control over a broad melodic range singing in church choirs. After receiving her first standing ovation at the age of ten for her rendition of Mariah Carey's "Vanishing," Jacqui was convinced that music was the art form she would make her mark in.

By the age of fifteen, her musical reputation and bilingual language skills drew other Cape Verdean artists to her. She credits Tony Santos, Djim Job, and Kalu Monteiro for taking her under their wings and helping develop her talent in the many days and nights spent at AMS recording studio over the years. Because of them, she has collaborated with Cape Verdean artists such as Belinda Lima, Djédjé, Gorete, Kola Band and many others.

When the former Prime Minister of The Cape Verde Islands, Carlos Veiga, visited the Unites States in 1999, Jacqui was requested to perform in his honor. Shortly thereafter, the young artist was asked to tour Africa, performing background vocals for Belinda Lima, the pinnacle of which was a performance before thousands at Cape Verde's Gamboa Festival.

This led Jacqui to record two hit songs on the African compilation CD "Beat 2002." The result was a Top Ten spot on the European and African charts. Jacqui has the ability to infuse her R&B, Jazz, and Gospel background into the Cape Verdean music she performs evoking soul felt connections in her listeners. A member of the Cape Verdean West Association, she now resides in Danville, California.

She brings her sultry soulful voice to "Night Fever," a band with whom she mesmerizes audiences from San Francisco to Los Angeles. As a devoted Christian, she is also extensively involved with several Christian ministries throughout the California East Bay area where she ministers to others in song. Though naturally gifted, she continues working to perfect her craft and is ready to introduce her unique sound to audiences globally and will indeed make her mark on this industry.

Desde muito pequena, de acordo com o testemunho dos pais, familiares e amigos, que o amor pelo Canto se manifestou, através das atitudes de espontaneidade. Por exemplo, com cerca de 05 anos, quando ia à Igreja Protestante com a avó e faziam os cânticos religiosos, como não sabia as letras desses cânticos, dava-lhes uma versão própria colocando as letras das musicas que aprendia no jardim de Infância e cantava em voz alta com a maior alegria e espontaneidade.

Na adolescência, juntamente com os colegas e vizinhos, nas brincadeiras da escola, em casa ou de rua e festas de aniversário, sempre gostou de organizar concursos de musica, dança, declamação de poemas e jogos, tendo como pano de fundo sempre, a MUSICA.

Com 19 anos de idade parte para o Brasil a fim de efectuar durante 4 anos a Licenciatura em Relação Públicas na Universidade Católica de Belorizonte, e nos momentos de muita saudade dos familiares a Musica era o seu refugio e costumava cantar nos convívios com os professores e colegas da faculdade, mostrando-os estratos da cultura musical cabo-verdiana, como a morna, funaná, coladera, batuque, cola sanjon, musicas brasileiras e jazz.

De regresso a Cabo Verde em 1998 começou a ser frequentemente convidada a participar em eventos culturais e a cantar em espectáculos de caris social, recreativos, vários Festivais (Festival Baia das Gatas- Ilha de S.Vicente; Festival de Santa Maria -Ilha do Sal), Fesquintal Jazz (2002), Festijazz(2003); na inauguração do CINESAL- Sociedade de Promoção de Eventos Culturais (2002); apresentou um Concerto no Centro Cultural Francês da Praia (2003)e participou num concerto no centro cultural Português da Praia (2004);participou nos CD's produzidos pela Embaixada de França em Cabo Verde-"Cap Vers l'Enfant II" (2001) and "Cap Vers Les Outres" (2002), a favor das crianças desfavorecidas ; actuou em Itália, no Festival de música "Sete Sois Sete Luas", onde deu 3 concertos nas cidades - Roma, Pontedera e Montemurlo; apresentou um espectáculo nas comemorações do 10º aniversário da empresa de farmacêuticos- INPHARMA; foi convidada pelo Presidente da Republica de Cabo Verde para cantar no jantar de homenagem oferecido ao Presidente da Republica portuguesa e ainda participou no espectáculo de inauguração das novas instalações do Hotel Praia Mar.

Hoje Isa é considerada uma das vozes revelações desta curiosa geração cabo-verdiana de novos talentos, tendo uma grande aceitação por parte do publico nas suas performances de apresentação da musica tradicional cabo-verdiana com uma certa influencia de sons brasileiros, jazz, blues bem como a exotica musica africana.

Since very young, according to her parents, family members and friends, she manifested her liking for singing. When she was about 5 years-old, she used to spend the holidays in Sao Vicente with her grand-parents, who brought her to the Protestant Church where they sang religious songs. Because Isa did not know the lyrics, she used to sing out loud, with a lot of joy and happiness, the lyrics of the songs she learned in kindergarten.

During her teen years, she organized music and dance competitions as well as poems recitations with friends and neighbours, at school, at home, and at birthday's parties, always using music as background. At the age of 19, she went to Brazil where she studied for four years and graduated with a degree in Public Relations at the Catholic University of Belo-Horizonte-Minas Gerais. In moments of homesickness, she always sang Capeverdean music such as morna, funaná, coladera, batuku, Cola Sanjon as well as Brazilian and jazz songs for her professors and colleagues from the University.

Back in Cape Verde in 1998, invitations to participate in social, re-creative and Cultural events, and public performances begun to appear. She was invited to sing at Festival of Santa Maria, Sal and Festival of Baia das Gatas, Sao Vicente; Fesquintal Jazz (2002), Festijazz (2003); at the inauguration of the Society of Cultural Event Promotion - CINESAL (2002); in the French Cultural Center (2003) and Portuguese Cultural Center (2004); she participated with 2 songs in a CD produced by the Embassy of France to aid poor children: "Cap Vers l'Enfant II" (2001) and "Cap Vers Les Outres" (2002); She performed in Italy at the Music Festival "Sete Sois Sete Luas," with 3 concerts in Rome, Pontedera and Montemurlo (2003); at the celebration of the 10 th anniversary of the enterprise INPHARMA (2003); she was invited by the President of the Republic of Cape Verde to sing at the Official Dinner honouring the President of the Republic of Portugal who visited Cape Verde; she also performed at the ceremony for the inauguration of the new building of the prominent Hotel-Praia Mar in Santiago (2004).

Today, Isa is considered one of the top Capeverdean voices among this curious generation of new talents, receiving good acceptance of the public for her performance of Capeverdean traditional music with some influence of Brazilian, jazz, blues and the exotic Africa continent music.

Nas suas experiencias musicais em Cabo Verde conta o grupo "Gotinha D'agá" com o qual se apresentou no já conhecido Festival Internacional da Baía das Gatas que por sua vez lhe abre as portas para o concurso "Todo o Mundo Canta", em 1987. Iman tem posto em realce a sua excelente colocação de voz, e um estilo de interpretar que pertence a uma "escola" onde se enquadram conhecidos artistas do meio mindelense.

Á procura de aventuras para lá das fronteiras do arquipélago cabo-verdiano de dez ilhas, Iman escolhe o caminho da emigração em 1989, transferindo-se para os Estados Unidos da América. Com residência fixa na histórica cidade de New Bedford, ele mergulha na cultura criola e no sentimento musical que é uma referência fundamental dum Caboverdeano em terras alheias..

Depois de uma rica experiéncia no arquipélago, com o conjunto "Gotinha D'Aga", Iman,já em New Bedford integrou no grupo "Wings" com o qual já percorreu vários palcos de diferentes estados como Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut e Rhode Island, que deixaria mais tarde para abraçar uma carreira a solo. Integrado na comunidade de Cabo Verde nos E.U.A., grava os C.D.s' "Nha Criolinha" em 1999, "Iman & Friends/ It's All Good" em 2000, o mais recente trabalho chama-se "Serra" editado em 2001. O rítmo musical de Iman Dias reflecte o seu sentimento como não podia deixar de ser. Mas ao mesmo tempo tomou o gosto ao pulso de pessoas de diferentes gerações que o rodeiam para poder agradar o maior numero possivel de pessoas.

Os trabalhos discográfico de Iman reflecte um autêntico mosaico musical que enforma a multifaceta da melodia cabo-verdiana. O compositor e intérprete cabo-verdiano Iman Dias promete regressar às suas raízes culturais, ou seja aos géneros com os quais entrou para vida artística.

For years, he was the singer and star of the band “Os Tubaroes,” long viewed as Cape Verde's "official" band in the days of the Marxist government. As such, he regularly traveled abroad to represent his country. Os Tubaroes (The Sharks) became the ambassadors of Capeverdean music, exporting their funana, coladera and morna beats all over the world.

The band eventually broke apart in the early nineties. In 1996, Ildo Lobo recorded his first solo album, "Nos Morna,” a tribute to his father, Antonio Sousa Lobo, who had died a few years earlier. "Nos Morna," recorded in Paris with the finest Capeverdean musicians, was produced by Mario Lucio, the charismatic front man of the group Simentera.

In 2001, Ildo joined the label Lusafrica and released his second solo album entitled "Intelectual,” still in partnership with his old songwriting companions, but accompanied by Cesaria Evora's musicians this time.

Gilyto was born in Achada Galego (Assomada) in the island of Santiago in Cap Verde (West Coast from Africa) on September 2nd, 1976. He stayed in his homeland until the age of 11 with his grandparents. Since his parents had migrated to Portugal, Gilyto and his older brother (Kido) left to Lisbon to meet them. He did his schooling in Portugal and lives there ever since. It was in Portugal that Gilyto discovered that his passion for music was very strong. . Years later, Gilyto also lived in the Netherlands where he further developed his musical creativity together with his cousins (Gil & Vado).

Back in Portugal, Gilyto participated in several musical events with some success. Therefore, he decided to embrace a musical career. This passion was in his blood. Since he was a child, dancing was another of his big passion, as can be seen in his video clips and shows. Gilyto plays piano, writes, composes and produces (gms-productions) his albums and audio-visual works. In February 1999 – back again in his homeland, Cape Verde, Gilyto takes the opportunity and records his first songs in the Globe Studios for his first album in April 1999. Then he leaves to Rotterdam to finish the album. Two months later (June 1999) the album “Kel Tempu” was distributed by Giva- Tropical Music, and had good reception in the world of Cape Verdean music. Together with Djoy Delgado he made a successful song: “Cynthia” that features as the best hit in the album. It conquered some radio and TV top charts.

Gilyto became then known as the singer, author and composer of the famous song “Cynthia”. However, in October of 2001, he wrote, composed and interpreted again with much success ‘Tenho Medo’ (I’m Afraid), track 5 in Lusodance IV. “(Main Actress), his second solo album, came out in December of 2001. After two and a half years, Gilyto presents us now his confirmation’s album, including different kind of music style, counting with participation of the greatest artiest and some new talents. Nha Atriz Principal”, is also the big hit in the album that reached to top of the charts in CV music world.

At a young age Grace and his parents emigrated to Paris for a short time, and then took permanent residency in Rotterdam, Holland.

Grace's big break came in 1989, when he was invited to play drums with the group Livity. This opportunity lead to a number of appearances with other groups such as Rabelados, Koladance, Cabo Verde Show and Splash!. When Livity approached Grace he was already established as a reputable drummer. As luck would have it, the band decided to allow Grace to record one song entitled "Bia" on their second release.

This song which represented the sensual and sentimental side of Grace immediately captured an audience that resulted in him becoming a solo artist. Grace has released three Compact Discs titled "Total Love I, Total Love II" and finally, the much anticipated "Romance".

In 1999, Grace collaborated with RB Records, Inc. to release "Romance". RB Records, Inc. from a label perspective decided to align Grace with recognized Cape Verdean musicians as well as allowing him the very best in production and engineering. This collaboration resulted in one of Grace's best work to date.

Today, thanks to RB Records, Inc. Grace Evora is enjoying a thriving musical career both as a solo artist and also as a prominent drummer with the group Splash!

In his youth he started experimenting and writing his first songs.

His style is a mixture of original Cape Verdean genres, the Funana and the Coladera, with modern dance music. His first maxi-single was immediately a big success and reached the top of the Cabo Verde and Portuguese charts.

Less than three years later, he was at the top of the most of the Portuguese speaking countries or countries were there are many Portuguese-speaking immigrants. He is now a very successful Cape Verdean artist and performs frequently not only in his home bases Cabo Verde and Holland, but also in the U.S.A., France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Angola, Senegal and obviously in Portugal.

His repertoire is entirely based on his own compositions. He has already made six CDs. His album "Verdadi", launched in August 1996, sold 20,000 in three months. His clips are still being broadcast on the Portuguese (RTP) and Cape Verdean television.

2002 Southern New Jersey’s Free-Style Champion, Gava hails from the mean streets of Brooklyn. An avid open-mike contestant, Gava is widely known in New York and New Jersey for his lyrical and bullet-speed rap delivery under the stage name “Chubby Biscuits”.

A true free-style rapper, Gava is 20 years old, charming and charismatic. While his schoolmates were eager to show off their skills, Gava kept his talent to himself, practicing secretly. One warm summer night in July of 1999, he surprised his hood mates with a 3 minutes free-style drop to ascend to the top rapper of his Brooklyn neighborhood.

Gava’s rap style is fluidly laidback on the beat, ghetto-toned and locked down with unpredictable rhymes and off-tempo pockets. His vocabulary is ultra-wide and his flow is smooth and relentless.

Gava’s debut album, on MB Records is scheduled for completion in early 2003. Meanwhile, his debut single, “2Way Ya Man” is already mastered and ready for release. The song is a fresh club anthem, based on an old-school funk groove, featuring the talented Warner Brothers’ recording artist, D’Mello, and mastered by the legendary, Bernie Grundman.

Her mother, known as "Meek," and her grandmother "Nené" were her role models. Nené had popularized the mornas [sad, romantic ballads] of Cape Verde's best known composer, Eugenio Tavares.

A celebrity in her native Cape Verde and in European countries like Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, and Italy, Gardenia recently graduated from Berkelee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, earning a degree in Professional Music. Although she had a string of successful albums for PolyGram, the first Cape Verdean ever signed to the label, and had toured extensively with many appearances on television shows and on the covers of magazines throughout Europe and the former Portuguese colonies of Cape Verde Island, Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau in Africa, she was aware of her limitations.

"I wanted to have more control over my creative work by learning how to write out my own music," she says. "I also wanted to learn more about the music business." Now that she has completed her studies, Gardenia has been regenerated. In her first CD single Production and video as an independent artist, Simplesmente Caboverdiana (Simply Cape Verdean), she has embarked upon a new, and exciting, stage in her career.

Bo Kin Cre, her last production also features a song she wrote and dedicated to composer Eugenio Tavares. The song is entitled Vila De Nova Sintra. Gardenia is confident of her future and in her ability to grow as an independent artist. "I am coming out this time with different material and a new image. It is time to let the people know through my new material exactly who I am as a musician. This new CD features less of a traditional sound and more dance-oriented music."

The group's name FERRO GAITA originated from the combination of two instruments: FERRO (a piece of metal played with a knife), GAITA (type of accordion). Both are utilized in traditional Capeverdean music. The instruments are the bases of the music style called funana. This style of music is unique to the Island of Santiago.

Funana originated in the beginning of the century with the arrival of the accordion to Cape Verde. The instrument was introduced to farmers from the interior of Santiago who began singing about their every day life, praises, needs and their typical way of life. During colonialism, Funana was prohibited in public places.
These young musicians that had already worked with groups such as Djassy and Fans de Marley formed Ferro Gaita on July 22, 1996. During their teenage years, the members discovered the gaita and ferro, with the addition of drums and a bass guitar they found new ways to play Funana. Ferro Gaita began playing in local bars and street concerts and in no time had people's attention. This led to an invitation to participate in the Gamboa ‘97 Festival in May 1997 in the city of Praia, Santiago.

With encouragement from friends and the financial support of the Capeverdean government and private companies, Ferro Gaita produced their first work in June 1997 in Holland by the name of “Fundu Baxu” introduced in August of the same year becoming the highest selling CD in Cape Verde in 1997. This project presented funana in its original style, which came to the surprise of many of those who did not believe funana would bounce back in the market after the collapse of the band Finaçon.

Two years later, the band released its second CD, "Rei de Tabanka", recorded in the US. This album took badiu culture a step further. It includes batuke, finaçon and tabanka along with funana, which makes the project unprecedented. Ferro Gaita is indeed investing in the traditional advancement of Cape Verde.

When she was around 10, Fantcha joined the Flores do Mindelo Carnival Company. Like in Brazil, year by year people of a same neighborhood, professional societies, and groups of friends are get ready for the carnival, one of the most important social events in Mindelo. Gregorio Gonçalves, also known as Ti Goy, was at that time one of the most famous composers in the city, and also the Flores Company music director; soon he realized that this young shrill-voiced girl had a voice that people would notice, a voice that would make the difference in the tough competition the carnival companies were indulged in. But, besides her voice and her look, Ti Goy detected in her a promising talent: he told her that she should become a singer and offered her some training lessons.

Years later, Ti Goy introduced Fantcha to Cesaria Evora; she also became a friend of Cesaria’s daughter Fernanda, who was Fantcha’s age. She started to visit Cesaria regularly and learned a lot from her: Ti Goy (who had previously trained Cesaria) taught her the rules of the rhythm as Cesaria taught her the vibes, the emotion, the phrasing, etc.

Early 1988 (later in the same year Cesaria was recording an album that changed her destiny), Fantcha was in Lisboa recording for Bana, the famous Capeverdean singer who lived in Portugal. For the first time, she went to the US, at the Massachusetts Capeverdean community’s invitation, for a concert series in the company of Cesaria Evora. Fantcha thought life was more exciting over there; so she took the decision to join this large New England Capeverdean community, later moving to New York where she is still living.

Since then, she recorded two albums for Lusafrica, Criolinha (“Little Creole”) in 1997, and Viva Mindelo in 2000, which is a tribute to the carnival of Mindelo and her early beginning.

An exceptionally talented artist, E’ lissa possesses a dark and powerful voice, with a velvety quality reminiscent of jazz singers. She’s a gifted alto with a uniquely dominant lower register, a vocal quality she attributes to her mother.

E’ lissa was born into a musically gifted family. She began singing and playing piano at the age of 5. Her mother, Robbie Jones, was a professional singer and pianist who turned down a recording contract from Motown to raise her family. Her father Billy Jones is a tuba player and a retired Air Force serviceman.

“At a very early age, my mother trained her girls to sing harmony and play piano. At the age of 5, I remember my mother keeping us up late singing in thirds with one another. We were to be the next Jones' Girls."

E’ lissa Jones wrote her first song at the age of 7. She began studying violin at the age of 10. At eleven, she was writing love songs and short classical works for violin and piano. At fifteen, she became the principal violinist for a popular string quartet, Ebony Strings, and performed in numerous television shows and festivals throughout Colorado.

E’ lissa studied violin at the University of Northern Colorado on a full scholarship. While at UNC, she rediscovered her love for songwriting. Since then, E’ lissa has written a catalog of over 200 songs. Her musical influences include Roberta Flack, The Carpenters, Carol King and Dottie West.

“Odyssey” is E’ lissa Jones’ debut album on MB Records. A dramatic and heart-wrenching album based on the artist’s personal struggles, Odyssey combines elements of Soul, R&B, Rock and Folk music to deliver an unprecedented Neo-Soul release. Introspective and melancholic, the album captures E’ lissa’s life and musical journey, and features the artist on vocals, violin, viola, piano, guitar and bass. From the soulful “Jungle Ho” to the tearful “Goodbye Friend”, from the country-tinged “Joven” to the jazzy “This Melody”, Odyssey rips the envelope of Neo-Soul and breathes new life into American music.

Native of São Vicente, an island where he grew up, Dudu belongs to a group of Mindelo artists who embrace music with passion, a strength that has permitted him to overcome several barriers throughout his career. Dudu was attracted by the singing, especially when his childhood friends used to dream of becoming great guitarists. At the age of nine Dudu started his relationship with music.
Contrary to his colleagues, the guitar, the piano and tile drumming did not fascinate him as much as the microphone. "I was amongst children who would make their instruments out of cans", he says. Dudu Araujos' first musical group was made up of homemade instruments. The microphone for example was a juice can with a string attached to it, giving the appearance of a cord. The speakers were beer cases standing up. Guitars were made out of wood, with cords of fishing thread. Butter cans became the drums. “It is easy to imagine what type of sound could be extrapolated from all this."

A former member of the group Chave d’Fendas offered Dudu’s first true microphone to him. It did not work, of course, but yet it would serve as the only true instrument amongst other "can instruments.” Orphaned at the age of 6, Dudu Araujo spent his childhood grieving on the island of San Vicente. Out of all his brothers, he was the only one living with his mother, therefore most of his time was spent between his studies and home chores. "The struggle for life was fierce," he admits.

During his adolescence, Dudu had the luck to organize his first band called "Jovens Unidos", along with Tito Paris, Toi Paris, Voginha and Bau-- other great instrumentalists who have emerged to maintain respectable careers in the Cape Verdean music industry. Trained by Ti Goi, one of the great mentors of the Cape Verdean culture, the group finally conquered a place under the sun, in São Vicente.

"Essentially we played music of the occasion such as those of Roberto Carlos, Nilton Ceasar and other artists being played on the radio.” The band had some success and performed mostly in Cape Verde. From this experience, Dudu went on to lead other good bands such as "Os Gaiados" and perhaps the most famous the King's band in which most of his recognition came from.

A fan base was formed. Dudu went on to travel the world and had a great time meeting powerhouse musicians such as Miriam Makeba, Manu Dibango and many others. Throughout his career, spanning approximately twenty years Dudu only recorded three LP's.

From his own words "Seriously speaking, this CD is the first artistic production that I am experiencing which is really mine. Thanks to RB Records, and prior to this opportunity I never had so much space and time to manage and work without the hurries of marketing the product. The dream of launching an acoustic production, with the orchestration of an instrumentalist with the sensitivity of Bau, becomes a reality with this compact disk that the reader holds.”

A legendary singer, ex-soccer player, and a "man of the sea", Djosinha conjugates music and the production and presentation of a radio program -- "Camin pa Cabo Verde" -- created 23 years ago.

Born and raised in Alto de Sao Nicolau, in Sao Vicente, Djosinha started to appear on stage when he was 7 years old.

Olavo Bilac, another personality of the Capeverdean music, was his mentor.

He started moving in Mindelo's musical circle at a time when the Capeverdean market was flooded by the Brazilian music. It was "Radio Pedro Afonso", a broadcasting station from his native island that made him popular in a contest presented by Evandro (deceased) and Mario Matos.

In 1967 he was invited to join “Voz de Cabo Verde", the first great Capeverdean band that showed the rhythm of the islands to the world and performed with great ability in showrooms in ballrooms rhythms such as "Cumbia, Salsa, Samba" among others.

It wasn’t too long until his talent was noted by the Capeverdean group sensation Splash, becoming later a member. Denis also participated in numerous musical projects such as Lusodance, Venus, and Cap Sol, launching his career into the Capeverdean music scene.

After three successful years with Splash, Denis released his first solo album entitled “Sonhos” (Dreams), produced by Upscale Records, an independent production company based in Rhode Island, US.

At eighteen, Cleusa is poised to be the next Pop/Hip-Hop revelation. Beautiful and infectious, she has a captivating voice that is both sensual and unforgettable. With a mere video demo, Cleusa was able to obtain a national television appearance at seventeen, and performed “live” on ABC’s talk show, “The View”, to great reviews and accolades.

An island girl, Cleusa was born in Cape Verde and moved to the US at the age of 3. She grew up singing and performing in churches, Christmas shows, cabarets and school plays, including The Wizard of Oz and Annie. She also performed live on 92 Pro FM, one of New England’s most powerful Pop and Hip-Hop radio stations. Her musical icons are Aretha Franklin, Earth Wind & Fire, Sam Cook, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.

Cleusa’s debut album on MB Records is a full departure from today’s releases. Due for completion this fall, Cleusa’s album introduces a fresh new sound, combining Hip-Hop with elements of Cape Verdean and other black African music. The result is a trademark sound that breaks the mold of today’s Hip-Hop programming with African samples and compositions in odd-meter: 3 Step.

Chando began his singing career at the age of fourteen during his first public appearance with the well-known band Abel Djassi. Abel Djassi and Chando performed in several countires, including in France, Holland and Dakar, Senegal, at the Coraduru festival .They also performed in Moscow at the International Youth festival in 1985, in Geneva, Sao Tome, and during a meeting of diplomatic organizations from Portuguese Speaking Countries in Luanda, Angola, at the hotel Presidente.

In 1990, they recorded their first album entitled "Cabeça em Movimento". Their appearances at the famous festivals of Baias das Gatas in Sao Vicente and the Lusofonia in Praia, Cape Verde, and Figueira da Voz, Portugal, confirmed their popularity. Soon after, however, Chando, a singer/composer who feels strongly about traditional musics, immigrated to Holland.

He then started a solo career, recording his first album “Nacia Gomi” in 1997. The following year he presented a second album “ Bitori nha Bibinha,” named also after this legendary musician Bitori nha Bibinha. He also collaborated with other artists, notably Tchota Suari, one of the best accordion players in Cape Verde. They released hits such as “Mosca Bitcho,” “Baca Brabu,” and “Grogu Nho Lela.”

hando now releases his new album “Dor Di Mundo” in which he pays tribute to Ildo Lobo, Orlando Pantera, and B. Leza. Since he emerged as a musician, Chando was received with open arms by everyone. He has become one of the most talented young interpreters of funana.

Three-hundred-and-fifty miles off the coast of Senegal, Cape Verde served as one of Africa's first slave ports, and became one of its last nations to achieve independence. All this helps to explain why the melancholy morna, an often minor-key song style tied to love, loss and sadness, best expresses the Cape Verdean national identity. And nobody sings a morna with more gusto than Cesaria Èvora.

Cesaria Èvora was born and lived most of her first fifty years on the island of Sào Vicente. Her violinist father died when she was just seven, and though she does not remember him, her grandmother has told her that she used to sit on his lap while he played. Surrounded by music, Èvora grew up singing with her friends in the suburbs of Mindelo. When she was 16, a boyfriend who played guitar convinced her that she had an exceptional voice and encouraged her to pursue music as a profession. Before long, Èvora recorded some songs for the national radio station, and began to build a reputation.

Those colonial times offered few options for musicians, but Èvora developed a modest career performing in bars and restaurants, and sometimes in the homes of wealthy Portuguese patrons. She idolized Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holliday and Amalia Rodriguez, the greatest exponent of the fado, and though she steers clear of making comparisons between the morna and other forms, she does concede a certain spiritual connection with the blues because it too was born of suffering.
Once Cape Verde achieved independence in 1975, many of the Portuguese aristocracy who had been her lifeblood during colonial times fled the new socialist government.

For the next ten years, Èvora barely sang. Then, in 1985, a Cape Verdean women's organization asked her to record two songs for a compilation CD. She went to Paris to record, and while there, played some concerts. Her abundant talent visible at last, Èvora quickly became Cape Verde's most celebrated singer. Her success in Europe was nothing short of phenomenal. She packed houses in Paris that other African divas could only dream of playing.

Èvora favors an elegant, acoustic backing band-mostly plucked strings-and sings in a robust alto that lifts the weight of hard experience with resolve and tenderness. In the early 90s, she produced two highly influential recordings Mar Azul (1991) and Miss Perfumado (1992). The latter in particular was widely considered a masterpiece and a model for all recordings of the morna since. Èvora 's subsequent releases continue the all-acoustic approach used on those landmark records, and she has been nominated for Grammy awards four times.
Èvora performs with closed eyes and bare feet, which she calls part of the "national costume" of Cape Verde.

She says that when she sings, memories play in her head transporting her to other times and places. Èvora's triumphs have not changed her much. When not performing, she still lives in Sào Vicente with her mother, and near her two children and grandchildren. Tough-minded and self-assured, Èvora proclaims a fondness for cigarettes and whiskey, shrugging off any notion that such habits might harm her voice. "I've had plenty of time to ruin my voice," she says. "And since it's not ruined yet, I'm going to continue."

Èvora's Grammy-nominated 1999 album, Café Atlantico, included invited musicians from other parts of the world, particularly Latin America. On her 2001 release, “São Vicente Di Longe,” she goes still further, including performances with Caetano Veloso, Bonnie Raitt, and Orquestra Aragon, among others.

Following in his father's footsteps, Calú Bana began singing at an early age and was introduced to the music world while still in his early teens. Selected to appear in the First Annual All Star Singing Contest (Tudo Mundo Canta) produced by JAAC-CV, Calu Bana won immediate recognition for his soulful interpretations of songs originally recorded by the legendary Capeverdean singer, Bana, the King of Morna e Coladera. Since Calu Bana is closely related to Bana, it wasn't long before the audience began cheering and affectionately calling him "Calú Bana, Calú Bana", a tribute to both artists.

Carlos, won that first competition and was on his way, taking with him his new nickname and critical acclaim. Following his success at the Tudo Mundo Canta, Calú Bana began appearing at local theaters and festivals (Baia das Gatas, and Santa Maria), eventually traveling to France and Holland to appear on stages with the very best Capeverdean artists and singers of his time.

While appearing locally and traveling to compete in international contests, Calú Bana joined Cimbodiana, a well-known local group. Along with Oscar, George, Calu (former Bulimundu band guitar player, drummer, and keyboard artist), and Tony de Nho Cando and Vava, (former members of Finacon), he performed throughout the Cape Verde islands.

Before leaving Cimbodiana in 1989 to come to the United States, Calú Bana won his second All Star singing contest. This time the stakes were higher and the competition tougher. All the vocal participants were artists from the international Capeverdean community returning from all over the world to join hands and celebrate their music and their culture. More than five thousand attendees at the contest cheered and applauded as Carlos took top honors from amongst his peers.

In 1991 Calú Bana became the lead singer of the Ice band. Their first release, "Mulata", took its name from one of its song written and composed by Carlos himself.

Following the break-up of Ice in 1994, the manager of Os Pecos invited Carlos to join their band as lead singer and the next phase of Calu Bana's career began. It wasn't long before he began making contributions that went beyond his wonderful vocalizing. On the second CD release by Os Pecos in 1994, "Cabo Verde Di Nós." Calú Bana sang on three tracks, one of which ("Fernandinha") he had written and arranged. In 1996 Carlos collaborated with his friend Gau on the popular album "Sentença", with Calú Bana recording his hit song, "Sonhe Realizode".

In1997 Calu Bana, joined forces with music producer Manny Rodrigues of MR Productions to record his first solo CD, "Pescador". In 1999 he recorded his second solo effort "Calor d'um Amor", also produced by Manny Rodrigues. This work of love, comprised of a selection of songs written and arranged by Calu Bana, was quite well received, garnering compliments from Capeverdean and Portuguese music aficionados around the globe. That same year found Calú Bana writing, arranging and performing three more songs on Os Pecos' third CD release, "Belem", as well as accepting invitations to perform on several more productions, including a CD released by Raymond, Bordott, Pulonga Bita , and the popular "Man In Love" compilation album.

In 2001 Calu Bana produced and released "Rainha de nha Tronu", an effort involving many of the best Capeverdean musical artists in the USA. He also recorded "Criolinha", which can be found on the "DJ Guelas" CD entitled Incognito produced by Pedro (Peter) from Musicom in Pawtucket. Now Calu is present his fourth album.

Born in 1952 as Gerard Mendes, Boy Gé Mendes' adventure began in Dakar, Senegal. His father was a punch card operator and his mother a seamstress. They were living in Dakar like many Cape Verdeans. In Félix Faure Street, downtown, Gerard Mendes grew up among friends from Mali, Senegal, Guinea and Cape Verde. He developed a taste for singing in his Catholic school choir and at parties and fairs. Later, Mendes started to perform at seedy piano bars like the Marseille, the Black & White and the Alhabama.

In those days he sang cover songs by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Rhythm and Blues and Salsa, in French and phonetically in English or Spanish. In 1967 Mendes put together his first group, the Beryls, with one of his brothers. This marked the start of a hectic life of concerts and festivals throughout Senegal. Mendes began to build a very good reputation. At the end of the 60s he left for France where he joined another one of his brothers. It was a false start. Two years later, he was happy to return to his favorite hangouts in Dakar, but the return was temporary.

In 1976 he set off again for France. The following year his brother Jean-Claude, Luis Silva and Emmanuel Lima asked him to join them in forming an exclusively Cape Verdean group. Created in Joinville in the Paris region, the Cabo Verde Show became the star group of the expatriate communities in Paris and Holland where they played regularly. For Gerard Mendes this was a crucial period. Suddenly an irresistible urge began to grow in him. Until then his native music had not been a priority but he now felt the need to compose and write as a Cape Verdean.

He contributed three original songs to the group's second album and they proved popular with the community. This success encouraged him to go further. Leaving the Cabo Verde Show, he and his brother launched a new project: Mendes and Mendes. Three albums later he put Paris behind him. Ten years in the gray north was enough. After missing the sea and sun, he moved to Nice in 1983.

Mendes formed a new group called O'asah, the name of a legendary bird. With O'asah he recorded an album and played as opening act at Joao Bosco's concerts in France. In 1990 Mendes recorded the hit song "Grito de Bo Fidge. He became Boy Gé Mendes, which is an allusion to his childhood nickname. After touring France and the United States Boy Gé Mendes decided to take a break. He traveled with his guitar to Brazil, the United States, Senegal and Cape Verde. In 1996, at the Baia das Gatas festival in Sao Vicente, the native island of his mother and girlfriend, he met up with Emmanuel Lima, who had now made his mark as Manu Lima, a key arranger and composer of African music. It was a fresh start. Boy Gé recorded the album "Di Oro" with Manu then chased off after yet another dream.

But the Portuguese colonial authorities didn’t appreciate the young singers who expressed a culture typically Angolan and Bonga went into exile in Rotterdam, Holland. The Capeverdean community of the city was already significant: men worked on the docks or for the Heineken brewery, women did domestic work. This community had its restaurants, bars, and its Saturday night or Sunday afternoon dances. There were places where you put the world to rights, dreaming of independence, of the return home, and where you remembered with nostalgia and heartbreak your relatives who‘ve stayed home.

Naturally, Bonga hung out with the Rotterdam Capeverdean musicians and he recorded his first record Angola in 1972, with them on the Morabeza label, which is still considered as one of the most interesting albums of modern African music. It was a mix of original and traditional compositions, in which Bonga sang of the tough reality of the Angolans under the colonial domination, the poorness, the shantytowns, etc. Then, after another recording in 1974, it was finally time for independence, the return home and the beginning of one of the most prolific careers for an African artist.

Recording album after album, Bonga became a star, all over Africa and in Portugal, giving the audience a dancing and lively music. However, despite his magical voice, Bonga didn’t really charm the buffs of the world-music scene. Today, a new CD is out, Mulemba Xangola, which is reviving the magic of the Angola album and the dancing atmosphere of his Portuguese career. 2000 was the year of a new beginning for Bonga.

Her training and learning traditional batuku songs by the elders such as Mana Nha Kuladia, Djuna Martin, Mariana Landin, Leonarda Koreia, Davidi Ramu, Dondoninha, Konpleta Barela, Marku Sikera and Balantina Mendi extended this education. In turn, with years turning into decades, she gained wisdom and was a renowned social teacher, always sought after by those seeking advice, clarity and solution.

So between the ages of ten to fourteen, she began learning batuku and finaçon, becoming a precocious batukadeira student within a short period of time. Since Nha Bibinha never left the island, she became intimately aware and knowledgeable of the social aspect of Capeverdean society and culture. Although she was illiterate and lacked schooling, she possessed a remarkable and superb memory, along with her deep-rooted cultural and social knowledge, especially regarding gender issues, which enabled her to “free style batuku”.

So she became famous throughout the island of Santiago, performing at weddings, festivals, baptism and state-sponsored ceremonies and the like. Like the griots of Mali, Songhai and Ghana empires, she traveled extensively to entertain the people whom bestowed her bountiful largesse. In that musical journey, she had met local politicians up to President Pedro Pires, then Prime Minister.

In 1920 she had married at the young age of nineteen to Jose Neves Cabral reputed to have been, at least, sixteen years older than her. This was certainly not uncommon in that era worldwide, especially in Africa, because the older men represented economic stability for bride and future family. Her husband was an Americano, Capeverdean emigrant from the United States, which was synonymous with wealth and the mighty dolla. She had a comfortable life during their marriage. They had had a couple of properties in Kural di Baixu, Tarrafal. Nha Bibinha had six children, six sons and only one daughter.

As the result of the marriage, her husband prohibited her to batuku, sing, and dance in his mother’s presence. So her musical career in batuku and finaçon was not continuous. It is said that she “retired” for some thirty-seven years. Later on, she began to batuku again. However with old age, local people were disapproving of her batuku participation because the other batukadeiras were much younger. Her old age, however, only bestowed reverence and deferential treatment towards her given her legendary batuku status as an elder batukadeira.

Given her experience with men and observing how some patriarchal Capeverdean men maltreated women, which was exacerbated under colonial rule, a finaçon of hers speaks of the character of guys: Subusnomi rapas ka di fiansa/por isu n nega fiansa na rapas/pork’e rapas é sima boston di soka/eris sta oshi pa sin/manhan pa nau/otramanha pa nunka mas! Machu pa riba labada/karneru dentu labada d’agu…[Guys’ names are no confidence/Therefore, I refuse to have confidence on them/because guys are like a sack of manure/They are here today/gone tomorrow/never again after tomorrow( basically they disappear)/Male on top of the stream/sheep inside the water stream.] This finacon was criticizing men’s irresponsibility.

Another finaçon dealt with the difficult rural occupation/life of the peasant: kantu ki n da rinkada pa n ben/agora n fase kontratu ku Deus/ami n ba simia kafé na sekeru/ami n ba simia kel anu/nase kel anu/ba pari kel anu/n kodje kel anu!... [When I left to come/now I made a contract with God/I, myself, went to sow coffee during the dry season/I, myself, went to sow that year/grew that year/yield that year/I harvest that year].

Since gossiping was rampant a finaçon said: Nhu dexa mundu konbersa/boka di argen ka kuarta/lingua di argen ka razola/boka di argen ka pisonha/lingua di argen ka lanseta/odju di argen ka benenu/tanbe pekador ka Deus… [Let the world talk/a person’s mouth is not a measurement/ a person’s tongue is not a measuring unit/ a person’s mouth is not poison/a person’s tongue is not a hook/a person’s eyes is not a venom/also a sinner is not Go].

In 1926 her father died then her husband in 1945. Two years later, she lost her properties and children but the council of Tarrafal made her a house in Montaria Vila di Tarrafal. However, her younger sister, Francisca da Veiga, aka Nha Chicha also a batukadera, was still alive. This brought her some comfort. In addition, Sior Lela, Bibinha’s friend and a shopkeeper, sold groceries to her on “credit” until she could afford to pay for the goods.

Although life had become difficult, particularly when she became paralyzed, positive vibrations always emanated from her through her smile, gentle demeanor, finaçons and advises people. Music was her life sustenance that alleviated her suffering, misery and despair that brought so much joy to her and others. She became remarkable in the history of traditional folk song, especially in the Santiago Island and her name is today legendary.

Like an eagle, Beto took his flight in music with determination and perseverance and has reached the zenith that most CV music artist envy, since he recorded for the first time with his band, Os Rabelados, in 1998. The album entitled "Unidadi e Luta" (Unity and Struggle) includes the song "Nhu Santu Amaru", which will be forever remembered as one of Beto's greatest hits. True to his style and musical principles, he preserved the excellence of CV music while taking it to ever-higher dimensions. His contribution to CV music surpasses that of any other living artist.

His ability to compose and to play guitar and especially his charisma to write poetic lyrics are characteristics peculiar to him that many envy. Beto is known especially for his romantic lyrics that stir the hearts of young fans. From the beginning of his career to his latest solo release (Nos 2), Beto’s romanticism changed from a troubadour expression of a bitter sweet love as is the case in the song "Dor di Amor" in his first solo "Sodadi" and later "Ki Vida" in Rabeladus' "Sukuro" to a realized love that he sings in Nos 2, his last work, a song that many believe was in honor of his then wife Suzana.

When asked if his romantic lyrics aren't pages of his love stories, Beto denies this view of his works in a very unconvincing reply by saying, "It is an amazing coincidence that every time I write a song something happens in my life that leads the public to draw false conclusions". "My love songs and my love affairs aren't connected as many seem to believe", he continues, supporting that "Ki Vida I wrote at a time where nothing was happening in my life, but when it was released I was just finishing a relationship with someone I really loved". With a smile of bewilderment, Beto sees this coincidence as "pure bad luck".

Recently, Beto experienced the ending of his love affairs with Suzana, the CV artist with whom he shares some of his many musical experiences. Rumors run of marital betrayals by Suzana, and on stage at the Club Plato, Beto admits playfully that he was dumped. Someone from the audience teased him saying that another artist (Vado) took Suzana away him, and to that he replied, "I wasn't the first or the second and surely won't be the last" to go through that with Suzana. When asked if there is another chance for the two of them, Beto took a long way just to arrive to a "No" nearby. "Life is tough, and nobody should sacrifice happiness just to keep a relationship going". His life has been a history of unfortunate love affairs, and it is to his view, "hard to really know when someone loves you for you or for the artist".

The shining beams of his eyes revealed the beginning of a new relationship that he later would confide to us but wouldn't talk much about except to say that, "I am fortunate to have her". Again, Beto is in a relationship when his last song "a look suffices" (um olhar é suficiente), recorded with a group of artists in the album "Creole Som", can easily be connoted to his currently affair. In that song he says, "My heart trusts the one who deserves it". Despite all the disappointments in relationship, he keeps his faith in love.

The songs, he so charmingly performs, are not only about love but are also about the country that he had to abandon with sorrow as many other CV born, but it was especially painful having to say farewell to a dear mother. "Music was the best way to express the love and sodadi (longing) I felt for my mother", Beto revealed with a pitch of nostalgia in his voice. In his latest solo, he dedicated track 5 (Mamai) to his mother where he asks for forgiveness. "My mom asked me what was she forgiving me for?" he told us answering, "but I don't know; maybe it is because I could have been a better son than I was".

Another of his greatest inspirations is a childhood lived in the paradise of his homeland. In that regard he reminisced, "I had a childhood beautiful to recall and retell". His childhood memories kept life going when the absence from home tortured his nostalgic feelings. Far away from home, Beto paid tribute to his people by singing "Sodadi", a song that all Cape Verdeans who left the islands looking for a better future for themselves and for their country can relate with. “Sodadi” is indeed one of his greatest hits that cries the woes of CV children abroad.

As a young man, Beto listened and appreciated the works of artists like Catchaz of Bulimundo, of whom he says, "I think we should not forget the great musical contributions by artists like Catchaz". He is one of the few artists who kept traditional music, particularly funana, going strong. "Currently there are two versions of funana in the market", and he lists: "one for the clubs and another more traditional". "But I have a great appreciation for the traditional style of playing funana with more guitar the way Catchaz composed his songs". "I highly praise the way Ferro Gaita plays funana", he complements the revolutionary work of this traditional band that has broken all the restrictions expected of an African folk music to become also a modern tradition.

However faithful to his style and traditions, he welcomes new influences in CV music. "I don't see anything wrong with adopting new styles our music", he forwarded reiterating, "It gives me joy to see new generation creating new styles". "We don't have to conserve too much". "I think it is great to create, and I have the highest respect for these new artists that are developing CV music". "As long as they keep it real and write what they really feel, I think it is fine to change, and I even admire artists like Duku and Arthur who are doing amazing things with CV music", he explained referring to the song "Subi Dixi" by Duko and Arthur. "I am proud of how the new generation is developing CV music, and I would like for the public not to criticize them too much".

For instance, Beto believes that rap is taking CV music to a higher level. "Here in the US, you have a great rapper that sends clear messages", he commends the work of Djedje. "That is what rap is about, the positive message it sends", he says and explains the limitations of his musical liberalism when he warns new artists that, "of course if you just open your mouth to say nothing in rap, people will criticize". Beto sees rap as introducing CV music especially in the US when he says that, "When an American hears a CV rapper rapping they will be curious about our music".

Africa is dearly caressed in Beto's lyrics, which shows his Black pride and dedication to his mother continent. In Rabeladus first album "Unidadi e Luta", Beto sings referring to Africa, "We wanna live in unity and love". In his latest solo album "Nos 2", he reminds, "Let’s not forget we are Africans", in track 3 (Africa). When ask to explain his love for the black continent that some Cape Verdeans are reluctant to identify with, he reminds us with a note of grief that "Africa is our mother and everything". "There is no other place I could sing about, but Africa", he says with a more joyful timber. "If I could walk on the street everyday saying that I am an African, I would. I am proud of being an African child, and I have to sing about that, because that is the reality we can't escape from", he ends with a thrilled tune.

Currently, Cape Verdean music lovers are getting a soulful uplifting of Ms. Belinda with her album, Realidade D’Amour. It is an adventure into a new sound for this exotic diva. The music takes Ms. Belinda back to her roots, displaying her elegance for mornas – a Cape Verdean version of blues.

She credits this God given talent to the gospel inspirations of singer Helen Baylor and groups like the Winans. Ms. Belinda also finds influence with artists like the Jacksons (namely Janet and Michael Jackson) and even the barefoot diva, Cesaria Evora, who has helped push Cape Verdean music into the spotlight with her Grammy nominated album, Cesaria.

Aside from music, Ms. Belinda also finds time to add acting, dancing and modeling to her long list of talents. She has won several regional competitions in her career, such as Miss Photogenic Rhode Island and Miss Black Rhode Island.Ms. Belinda, however, is not just another pretty face.

She can hold her own when it comes to performing with others in the music industry.

She has opened shows for such well-known artists as R&B singer Brian McKnight, dance diva Robin S. and hip-hop group K-7. She has also done work with producers from Epic, Polygram and RCA recorders as well as Tiny Tavares of the disco, R&B group, Tavares and producers of Devante from JODECI.

Her soulful voice attracts audiences by the thousands.

Ms. Belinda has been showcased in several festivals and tours such as Disney’s 50th Anniversary Tour, Baia Das Gatas ’87-‘89, in Sao Vicente and Gamboa ‘98-‘99 in Praia, Cape Verde Islands. All of the concerts were televised worldwide on RTP International Television.

In the past, the government of Cape Verde has welcomed Ms. Belinda several times to perform for crowds of 50,000+ at their expense. She is considered a valued musical treasure.

However, Cape Verde is not the only country to be graced with her beautiful talent. She has performed in such countries as Angola, Germany, Holland and several other European and African nations. Now, her goal is to take on the United States.

Ms. Belinda is ready in mind, body and spirit to take on the world with her new trek into a more spiritual, more traditional route of Cape Verdean music. As Ms. Belinda says, "I want to represent the culture and make it widely accepted and admired."

Is the World hungry enough for this soulful diva?

As a young boy, Bana was surrounded by the music of local singers. At fourteen, he would stay out late with local musicians as they serenaded the city with melodious songs. His mother was not happy with her young son's habits. She saw his late night adventures as wild, teenage behavior, worthy of punishment. Her opinion soon changed as the young singer's reputation began to spread around the island. When people began running to Bana's mother to request his appearance at parties and ceremonies, she could no longer deny his talent.

By 1953, Bana had come under the influence of Francisco Xavier da Cruz, known professionally as B. Leza. B. Leza's impact on Cape Verdean music cannot be overstated. In the 1950s, this famous uncle of Cesaria Evora taught Bana and many others the art of the morna. Late in his life, B. Leza was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. The stout Bana used to actually carry B. Leza to performances. Suffering from shortness of breath, B. Leza shortened his words, swallowed his syllables and reinvented the Cape Verdean morna to accommodate his illness. He used these techniques with such grace and success that they have become characteristic of Cape Verdean music. Under B. Leza's influence, Bana's musical style gained a similar melodic flow and rhythm.

When B. Leza died in 1958, Bana was on his own. Soon, he went to Dakar, Senegal--the nearest big city--where he recorded his first album in 1962. The four-song album was simple and successful, selling 2,000 copies in the first two weeks. His work took him to France and later Holland, where he recorded two more successful albums. Around this time, Bana formed his own band, which he called A Voz de Cabo Verde (The Voice of Cape Verde). Collaborating with fellow Cape Verdean musicians Luis Morais, Toi De Bibla, Jean Da Lomba, Morgadinho, and Frank Cavaquinho, Bana created a sound that has been the model for Cape Verdean bands ever since. The group's name could not have been more appropriate. Bana's albums were successful not only in São Vicente and the other islands of Cape Verde. Cape Verdeans in Portugal, Italy, France, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and the United States recognized Bana's Portuguese Creole mornas as the voice of their people heard around the world.

By the late 1960s, Bana was performing sold-out shows from Lisbon to Luanda. After an extended tour of Angola's capital city and countryside, Bana decided to slow down briefly in Portugal and open a Cape Verdean restaurant. Bana's Monte Cara is both a restaurant and a nightclub. It has been called Lisbon's "mecca for African music." Meanwhile, Bana continued to tour around the world and expanding his international following.

Back in Cape Verde in 1975, Bana found himself on the wrong side of revolutionary politics. He was accused of collaborating with colonial powers, and forced to return to Lisbon. He received an official apology seven years later and returned to a warm welcome.

In 1986, after more than forty years of singing, Bana decided to retire after one last tour of Cape Verde and its huge diaspora. Then, after a ten-year break from the business, Bana took a vacation from retirement to record the album Gira Sol, which was arranged and produced by Ramiro Mendes of MB Records, and in 1998 he recorded his last album Livro Infinito produced by Kim Alves.

Cape Verde has changed a great deal since a fourteen year-old boy stayed out late to serenade the streets of São Vicente. Born in Cape Verde under the flag of Portugal, Bana has evolved into an international symbol of an independent nation. He has received honors and the Medal of Grand Merit award from the president of Cape Verde, as well as the president of Portugal.

Nationally recognized as the best male vocalist of Portugal, Antonio “TC” Cruz is one of the three singers featured at the 1998 Miss Portugal Beauty Pageant, along with the Hispanic mega star, Ricky Martin and Italy’s superstar Nek. Earlier in 1996, he was invited by the internationally known Italian singer, Laura Pausini to participate in her album, “Le Cose Che Vivi “.

A former Universal Music Portugal artist, Cruz broke through the music scene of Portugal in 1995, after winning 1st place in a national talent contest, before a live television audience of 2 Million viewers, to represent the country at the prestigious Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland – the same European talent show that launched the career of superstar Celine Dion. His debut Portuguese album, Alma Nua (Universal) is revered as a watershed release, launching a new frontier in Portuguese music.

Well-regarded within the television and film circles of Lisbon, Antonio “TC” Cruz is the powerful voice behind the animated characters of “Simba” in Disney’s Lion King II, “Quasimodo” in Hunch Back of Notre Dame I & II, and “Garrett” in Warner Brothers’ Magic Sword – Portuguese version.

Descendent of Cape Verdean immigrants, Antonio “TC” Cruz was born in Lisbon and grew up listening to Cape Verdean and American music. His musical influences include the bluesy Cape Verdean “Morna”, American R&B, Soul and Hip-Hop. His favorite American artists are Steve Wonder, Prince, James Ingram, Jeffrey Osborne, Hip-Hop star B.I.G. and the soulful Mary J. Blige.

Antonio “TC” Cruz now turns his attention to the United States and the world. His self-titled debut English album on MB Records is a bold and innovative release, blazing new trails in R&B, Hip-Hop and Soul music. A true musical adventure, the album features fifteen (15) original songs, beautiful melodies and arrangements, blending American popular music with elements of Cape Verdean and other black African music to launch the first Hip-Hop compositions in odd-meter: 3 Step.

Embellished with strings, horns, African music samples and impromptu live studio tracks, the album also includes Special Guest appearances by MB Records’ multi-talented Neo-Soul singer, violinist and pianist, E’ lissa Jones, dynamic vocalist, Cleusa Alfama and Brooklyn rapper and street poet, GAVA.

She then participated on the second edition of the Lusodance series with the song, Cuzé Sta Passa, becoming a number one hit for eleven consecutive weeks in Portugal’s Luso-African pop charts.  Ariëtte went on to contribute to Lusodance 3 with track Amor De Mas Ou Menos, and other pop compilation series such as Mobass and Venus.

With her first solo release, Dedicaçons, Ariëtte's enchanting voice and sweet melodies accompanied by arrangements conducted by some of Rotterdam’s the hottest musicians invite all audiences to enjoy her personal dedication to her fans.

It is no wonder that Anané has been blessed with a deep connection with her rich history and an immeasurable global understanding of music. “My aunts and uncles were known as the Xalinos [their family name.] They made most of the musical instruments on the island, such as guitars, violins, and the uncommon Cavaqinho, a small four-string guitar”, explains Anané. On the weekends, her family would host the traditional Serenada, a gathering of people who sang and danced to the music of the island. It was during this time in her childhood that Anané realized the beginnings of her extraordinary vocal prowess.

After immigrating to Rhode Island with her family, Anané was able to expand on her musical interests from the island sounds of Cape Verde to the soulful sounds of America. She has been musically influenced by the artists she grew up listening to, including a wide range of classic and contemporary vocalists such as: Gal Costa, Tito Paris, Sade, and Jill Scott. As a result, she has been able to enjoy an eclectic mix of performers who continue to impact their listeners and other artists over time. “Jill Scott is my greatest inspiration, musically and lyrically. She is just an all around real woman,” says the singer/songwriter.

Taking her cues from these individuals, Anané began singing in her own musical group, 2 Each Her Own, by the time she was a teen. “I was in a girl group and we performed in the Rhode Island and Boston area”, she happily reminisces. “I had always wanted to be involved in the entertainment business, whether it was in modeling, dancing, or singing.” Anané represented the United States and won the Miss Cape Verde pageant and later won the Miss Portugal title, representing her home state of Rhode Island. Anané has also taken the modeling world by storm, being featured in such magazines as Latina, Mode, and Ulla Popkens, along with a feature in a major campaign for Revlon. However, Anané is simply not just another model. She has been designing and sewing her own clothing and coordinator various fashion shows, for years. Her vast involvement in the entertainment industry has also catapulted her into the music video realm, being featured as a dancer for such artists as: Redman, Erik Sermon, Byron Stingily, and Keith Murray. Indeed, her experiences as a young world ambassador and performer provided her with the opportunity to travel and begin sharing her extraordinary talents with the world.

Louie Vega confesses that “for the past six years, Anané has been my secret weapon muse.” It is no surprise that Anané’s inclusion in Louie Vega’s new ground-breaking musical project, Elements of Life, was a natural fit and obvious choice. Utilizing various sounds and instruments, along with her sultry lyrics in Cape Verdian, Portuguese, and French, the music on Elements of Life (due out in early 2003) has been seamlessly blended to truly elevate, enlighten, and even surprise you. Reacting from her thoughts on this project, Anané says, “It has been one of the most incredible experiences in my life. Working with Louie Vega…he has this acoustic vision, which is hard to explain…but as each day passed and as we collaborated, little by little, a song came together, like a painting or a poem. We just let it flow freely. In the end, we created something that came from deep within our souls…a story that explains what we are feeling at this moment in time, love, and life.”

These moments in her life and the subsequent lessons learned along the way have shaped Anané into the woman she is today. Anticipation is building on her future projects as she will surely impact her audience and in turn, influence the direction of tomorrow’s music, its artists, and entertainment moguls. She is undoubtedly blessed with a gift of song with the uncommon versatility to create fresh music mixed with the beats, sounds and emotions of her soul. Anané is a true musical entrepreneur, who will continue to bring the joy of song to us for many years to come.

Amandio was born in Ribeira Brava on the island of São Nicolau on January 18, 1935. His parents were Antonio Cardozo Cabral (known as Antonio Clatanose) and Antonia Dalgiza Cabral (the daughter of Nho Jon Changinha from Rabona). He has four sisters, three of whom currently live in France and one in Dakar.

His father and four uncles were all musicians and his first instrument was the Capeverdean 10 string guitar, the viola, which he began playing at the age of 11 while living with an uncle. Around this time he moved with his mother to Mindelo (in São Vicente) and began studying woodworking at a polytechnic school, with little time to play music.

He was 18 and living with an aunt (after his mother moved to Dakar) when he began playing guitar. His first composition was inspired by his mother’s leaving and was entitled Sodade de Mama (also known as Novos d’Alegria). One of his earliest compositions was Sodade, later made famous by Cesaria Evora.

The noted guitar maker Nho Batista gave Amandio a very wonderful guitar and he began performing around Mindelo with more established musicians, writing many songs based on his life experiences. As throughout his life these early songs were never composed just to create a song: They always came from deep in his heart and conveyed the emotions that he felt for the people and circumstances around him. Often Amandio and his fellow musicians performed on the radio. Several of these live performances were taped and later released as recordings without the musician’s knowledge. It was in this way that many of his early songs became well known.

He traveled to Dakar in 1959 and to Portugal in 1960 where he performed extensively on radio and television broadcasts. The Portuguese government sponsored tours throughout Europe and Africa and in 1965 to the United States, where he performed primarily at colleges and universities. He spent six months in New Bedford, Massachusetts, before moving to San Francisco where he has remained ever since.

In San Francisco Amandio performed constantly for several years, hosting a television show for a year and a half and studying music theory at San Francisco State University for two years. In 1965 he was married, but the marriage lasted only a short period of time, producing a son, Nicolau Cabral, who currently lives in Los Angeles.

Amandio has remained in San Francisco, composing and (very rarely) performing his music. His other pursuits include restoring antique furniture and collecting fine art. He maintains a simple and peaceful life style, surrounded by his art and music.

In the mid 1970s Amandio met Larry Dunlap, a pianist originally from Oregon and a strong musical friendship developed that continues to this day. Their collaborations have produced seven recordings, the most recent of which, Basio de N’Amor, features Amandio’s singing accompanied by Mr. Dunlap’s arrangements and piano with a six piece band. A new recording is currently being planned.

Self-taught, Agusto is a multi-talented musician who dominates many musical instruments, including the violin, clarinet, saxophone, flute, ukulele, harmonica, piano, and six and ten string guitars. In addition, he is a gifted singer with a beautiful mellow voice.

The Boston Globe, in its Music headline - “Giving voice to Cape Verde” – referred to Agusto Cego as “A warmly swinging singer; if he does not have Evora’s depth (and who does?), he is more imaginative in his phrasing and rhythm, and has the same gentle intimacy and old-time acoustic feel. (6/16/00)”
Since 1993, Agusto has represented his native island of Fogo and Cape Verde in numerous national and international music festivals, including appearances in Switzerland, France, Germany and Sweden. In 1995, he was invited by the Smithsonian Folk Live Festival to represent the island of Fogo, during the two weeks cultural exposition dedicated to the islands of Cape Verde, held at Washington Mall, Washington D.C.

Bobossó is Agusto Cego’s debut album - an upbeat mélange of Cape Verdean musical styles, including Talaia Baxu, Morna, Coladera and Mazurka. The album prominently features Agusto Cego on vocals, violin, guitar, ukulele, sax and clarinet. Filled with proverbs and yearning, Bobossó encompasses ten original compositions deeply rooted in the traditions of the island of Fogo and of Cape Verde.

The album is arranged, produced and co-authored by Ramiro Mendes, a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Ramiro holds a degree in Commercial Arranging and Film Scoring. With over 30 albums to his credit, Ramiro has produced all of the top Cape Verdean artists, including Cesaria Evora, Bana, Tito Paris and the Angolan artist Waldemar Bastos.

Known as the genius of seven instruments, Agusto Cego will certainly not leave the music scene anytime soon. Currently he is working on his second album with the musical production by Kim Alves, one of the most prominent musicians in the Capeverdean music world.

Bau’s father was a stringed instruments maker in Mindelo and gave him for his seventh birthday his first instrument, a cavaquinho, which is a small four strings guitar, similar to a ukulele, used in Brazil and in Cape Verde to mark the beat. Then his father taught him how to make instruments like guitars, cavaquinhos, violins but also how to play them; and Bau didn’t stop until he mastered his musical skills.

That allowed him to combine an instrumental virtuosity with his instinctive autodidact sensitivity. Bau’s favorite cavaquinho player was the Brazilian virtuoso, Waldir Azevedo; however he also admired the «guitara flamenca» style of Al Di Meola or the violin of Stephane Grapelli. But beyond these influences, Bau gets also this island’s musician’s charm and this elegance that make the Capeverdean music syncopated, rhythmic, nostalgic and intimate.

In 1994, Bau integrated the band (conducted by Paulino Vieira) that accompanied Cesaria Evora on stage. In 1996, Bau became the director of this musical formation and started to travel around the world thanks to Cesaria’s world success. He also participated to the realization of the albums Cabo Verde (1997) and Café Atlantico (1999).

In September 99, Bau gave up the direction of Cesaria’s band to the pianist Nando Andrade and went back to Mindelo, his island. That’s where he conceived the album Blimundo, which is all about finesse and musical subtleties and remains to date his most achieved piece of work.