Carmen Souza | |
|---|---|
 Carmen Souza, 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 20 May 1981 |
| Origin | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Website | carmensouza |
Carmen Souza (born 1981) is a Portuguese jazz singer and songwriter of Cape Verdean heritage. She combines traditional forms of Cape Verde with contemporary and traditional jazz.
Carmen Souza was born in Lisbon on 20 May 1981, to parents who had moved to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution ended the colonial era of their native Cape Verde. [1] Though Souza has only been to Cape Verde herself a few times, once on a family trip when she was ten and again as an adult in 2010, she grew up speaking Creole and eating Cape Verdean cuisine. [2] While still a child, she began singing gospel music in the church choir. [3] Her parents maintained close ties with the diaspora, and Souza's childhood was filled with the music and culture of Cape Verde, along with that of the former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Brazil, Mozambique and São Tomé. [4] Souza's father, Antonio, a merchant sailor, [2] insisted she should learn English and German. After spending just one year at college, she left to pursue her music career. [3]
In 1999, Souza began partnering with bassist Theo Pas'cal, [5] who has been a mentor to her and continues to perform with her. [5] They met when she came to audition for a music project Pas'cal was directing [3] and initially she performed professionally with him in a Portuguese-language gospel choir. [6] Souza plays piano and guitar, [5] writes or co-writes her songs with Pas'cal [5] and sings. [3] In 2003 they began working on a style which combined Cape Verde Creole music, including the batuque, coladeira, and morna genres, with contemporary jazz. [6] Souza usually sings in Creole because its variants allow her a flexibility for the language to meld with different cadences, than more formal languages allow. But she also sings in English, French, and Portuguese. [4] Her voice is "alternately chirpy and grave." [2] Africa Today described her as having a "soul diva voice". [7] Souza's work transforms the traditional Cape Verde morna, adding jazz and personal invention, [8] such as vocal experiments, using her pitch and tone to emulate musical instruments. [9]
Her debut album, released in 2005, titled Ess ê nha Cabo Verde, [10] was their first West African-jazz blend adapted to an acoustic vibe. [6] Souza's second release was Verdade (Truth), [3] in 2008. Featuring the duo's blend of African and jazz music set to Wurlitzer electric piano and guitar, it won wide critical acclaim. A re-release of the album in 2010 by Galileo Records was included in several best world music lists for the year. [6] Three years later, they followed up the success with Protegid (Protected), featuring Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and French accordionist Marc Berthoumieux [7] with Souza on Rhodes piano, guitar, and vocals. [6] Protegid blends Cape Verdean music with traditional jazz [11] and includes updates on jazz standards, for example Horace Silver's famous tune Song for my father. Carmen's vocal chorus takes note by note Horace Silver's chorus on the first version of this standard [12] . [5] The album was nominated for the German Record Critic's Award and earned a ranking on the World Music Charts Europe (WMCE). [6]
Souza chose to donate half of the proceeds of her 2012 album Duo (also known as London Acoustic Set) to charity. [13] Most of the album was recorded at the Green Note Club in London with two tracks which had been produced in 2010 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. All of the tracks had been previously released on her other albums, but all were new, live interpretations. [14] Kachupada, named after a type of Cape Verdean food, kachupa , was her fifth album and was released the following year. [5] Kachupada includes her version of two jazz classics, "Donna Lee" and "My Favorite Things". [2] She followed with an album released in 2014 called Live at Lagny Jazz Festival which features musicians Ben Burrell on piano, Elias Kacomanolis on drums and percussion, and her music partner Pas'cal, playing acoustic and electric bass. Souza's accolades for the album included "one of the most talented and innovative vocalists in the present-day jazz and world music scene". [15] Souza resides in London. [10]
The positive response to her first album led to international recognition, when she performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance Festival (WOMAD) held that year in Reading, Berkshire, England. [6] She performed in Ireland at the Farmleigh Affair Festival in 2008, despite the bad weather [16] and the following year was noted for bringing "a sultry jazz swing to the bluesy morna of her Cape Verde Islands homeland" in a Toronto performance which was part of a North American tour. [17] In 2010, she played at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, the London African Music Festival, and the Leverkusener Jazztage Festival, in Leverkusen. In Leverkusen, Souza was one of the headliners and her performance was later broadcast by Westdeutscher Rundfunk/3SAT TV. [6] Souza performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in 2011 [18] and at the Kriol Jazz Festival in Praia, Cape Verde, in 2013. [11] [4] Later that same year, she performed at the WOMAD Festival in Cáceres: her first visit to Spain. She toured afterwards in Barcelona, Madrid, and Zaragoza [4] before an appearance at the Regattabar in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [2] Carmen Souza performed on 23 June 2016 at the Gibraltar World Music Festival in St. Michael's Cave. [19]
Cape Verde is known internationally for morna, a form of folk music usually sung in the Cape Verdean Creole, accompanied by clarinet, violin, guitar and cavaquinho. Funaná, Coladeira, Batuque and Cabo love are other musical forms.
The morna is a music and dance genre from Cape Verde. It was proclaimed Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO on December 11, 2019.
The coladeira is a music genre from the Cape Verde islands in the central Atlantic Ocean.
The culture of Cape Verde is rich, with a range of customs and practices common in the islands.
Maria de Barros is a singer most associated with Cape Verde, the land of her parents. Growing up in Nouakchott, Mauritania, she moved to the United States at the age of 11, living in Providence, Rhode Island in her youth with her four siblings, and connecting more closely with her heritage in the local Cape Verdean community. She is married to, Mel Wilson Jr., a bassist with Toots and the Maytals.
Cesária ÉvoraGCIH was a Cape Verdean singer known for singing morna, a genre of music from Cape Verde, in her native Cape Verdean Creole. Her songs were often devoted to themes of love, homesickness, nostalgia, and the history of the Cape Verdean people. She was known for performing barefoot and for her habit of smoking and drinking on stage during intermissions. Évora's music has received many accolades, including a Grammy Award in 2004, and it has influenced many Cape Verde diaspora musicians as well as American pop singer Madonna. Évora is also known as Cizé, the Barefoot Diva, and the Queen of Morna.
Adriano Gonçalves, known by his stage name Bana and called the "King of Morna", was a Cape Verdean singer and performer of the morna style, the plaintive, melodic lament which is a staple musical style of the country.
Fantcha is a Cape Verdean singer.
Ana Firmino is a Cape Verdean singer. She was born in 1953 on the island of Sal, but it was not until she was in her late 20s that she dedicated herself to a career in music. She has performed for many years in Cape Verde and Europe particularly in Portugal, appearing in film and on television releasing several solo albums including Amor e Tao Sabe (1998). She is a well-regarded interpreter of the native morna as well as other traditional genres. One of her signature songs is Chico Malandro, produced by one of Cape Verde's most successful musicians Tito Paris.
Kontinuasom is a 2010 documentary film which was released in Cape Verde and Spain. It was directed by Oscar Martinez. The film describes the musical heritage and culture of Cape Verde.
Maria Alice may also refer to a Portuguese fadista
Cape Verdeans, also called Cabo Verdeans, are a people native to Cape Verde, an island nation in West Africa consisting of an archipelago in the central Atlantic Ocean. Cape Verde is a multi-ethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Cabo Verdeans do not consider their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities.
Karin Mensah is a classically trained singer from Cape Verde, whose preferred genre is jazz and traditional music from West Africa. She is a music educator who has served as the founder and director of the Accademia Superiore di Canto in Verona, Italy, since 2004.
"Sodade" is a Cape Verdean song written in the 1950s by Armando Zeferino Soares, and best popularized by Cesária Évora on her 1992 album Miss Perfumado. The name is the Cape Verdean Creole variant of the Portuguese term saudade.
Epifânia de Freitas Silva Ramos Évora, better known as Dona Tututa or Tututa Évora was a Cape Verdean composer and a pianist.
Nancy Vieira is a Cape Verdean singer. She was born in Guinea-Bissau and currently resides in Portugal.
Gardénia Benrós is a Cape Verdean singer.
Elida Almeida is a Cape Verdean singer.
The Cape Verde Music Awards is an annual music award ceremony that takes place every year. The award ceremony takes place in the capital city of Praia, Cape Verde. It is also broadcast on TCV.
Criolinha is an album by the Cape Verdean musician Fantcha. It was released in the United States in 1998. The album is primarily a collection of coladeira songs, although it includes a few mornas. Fantcha supported the album with a North American tour.
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