Zé Luis is nearly sixty. For years, he has been singing informally for Cape Verdean audiences. Now, for the first time, the rest of the world has a chance to hear his warm, enchanting voice on record.

José Luís was born in Praia in 1953. His mother passed on two great passions to him: music and cooking. He still remembers the fados – and, of course, the mornas – that she loved to sing while working around the house.

José Luís is at home with morna. He fully identifies with the genre as both an artist and a Cape Verdean. For the singer, morna is the most typically Cape Verdean style of romantic expression. Combining sadness, melancholy and sensuality, it is rooted in the soul and identity of his people.

When he was just eight, José’s family emigrated to Principe, one of the two islands that form São Tomé and Principe. The archipelago was then a Portuguese colony, as was Cape Verde. Back in the day, many Cape Verdeans moved there to farm the islands’ fertile volcanic soil. Many hoped to find a better life away from the poverty and famine of Cape Verde, but some were actually forced to move there by the Portuguese authorities. When they were not labouring in the fields, workers and their families gathered on Sundays, holidays and ceremonial occasions to meet and remember those they had left so far behind in their homeland. Their aim was to “kill nostalgia” (matar sodade). Of course music and particularly morna played a vital role at these reunions.

When in 1969 he finally returned to his homeland, the young José naturally found a place in the musical life of the capital, under the nickname of Zé Luis. His singing was recognised and enjoyed by all. Invited to every last serenade, party, musical competition and cultural event, he delighted audiences with his melodic, charming vocal talent and limitless repertoire as he performed the work of the greatest contemporary songwriters, along with forgotten songs which he revived with gusto. Yet he led a simple life, working as a carpenter. Music was always his great passion, a vital part of his life, but it was only for his personal pleasure. He sang as an amateur – rather fancifully, as if it were just a hobby. But today, at an age when most people are thinking of retiring, Zé Luís has decided to share the art he once kept for his small hometown community with the rest of the world. The power of his voice deserves to be heard by more than such a small audience.

Tito Paris, «the dear child of São Vicente», began his professional career in a family of musicians in Mindelo when he was nine; first, he has been initiated by his brothers to the cavaquinho, then to the guitar; later he became a bass-player before to take his chances composing his owns songs. He was around 19 when Bana, the famous Capeverdean singer based in Lisbon, Portugal, invited Tito to join his band, The Voz de Cabo Verde.

In Lisbon, Tito got soon his fame on the very flourishing Capeverdean musical scene: besides Bana, he was backing many other musicians, such as Dany Silva, Paulino Vieira, Paulo de Carvalho, Celina Peirera, or Vitorino… But it was as a composer that he made a name for himself, writting songs for many singers like Bana and Cesaria Evora. With a wealth of success on the Lisboan scene, he founded his own band with which he offered a acoustic but also electric show.

In the acoustic formation (piano, cavaquinho, bass, clarinet) Tito, who accompanied himself on the guitar, sang amazingly, with his husky voice, the standards of the Capeverdean morna; in its electric version and with an excellent brass section, the band that was really guitar oriented, gave a colorful and energetic show, that was composed of coladeras. And Tito has already become a coladera master.

Previously, Tito Paris has recorded two albums: Tito Paris ( released in Portuga, 1987) and Dança ma mi criola (on the Boston based label, MB Records in 94). His first record produced by Lusafrica, Graça de tchega, was released in October 96. On that occasion, Tito performed in Paris, Brussels, in the Netherlands and for the ’97 Midem in Cannes. But Tito’s heart belongs to Lisbon, his adoptive city, where he likes to perform. That’s where that, in June 98, Lusafrica decided to record a live album, at the Club B. Leza.

Manuel Lopes Andrade, aka Tcheka, was born on the 20th July 1973 in the port of Ribeira Barca, Santa Catarina district, on Santiago, the most African island of the Cape Verde archipelago. At a very early age, he began to perform alongside his father, Nho Raul Andrade, a highly popular violinist at the island’s village dances and festivities. 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 batuque, 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 batuque, 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 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 wrote a number of songs with him. The two played informally in the bars of the Cape Verdean 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 modernising “batuque”, in much the same way as Catchas updated Funana, the other great Santiago beat, in the seventies. Providing a new reading of batuque while conserving its traditional structures is the message of Tcheka.

Pierre Akendengue is a pioneer. Although the term is often misused, it fits perfectly in his case. Born on the 25th April 1943 on Aouta, an island to the southwest of Gabon, the singer-poet and storyteller-philosopher who studied at the Mireille Petit Conservatoire released his first album, Nandipo, in 1974, on Pierre Barouh’s Saravah label. Back then, he played a part in the emergence of a primarily African-flavoured world-music explosion in France, where he had come to study and would stay for twenty years, before returning to Gabon in 1985. Over his career, Akendengué has increasingly filled out his orchestrations and given more emphasis to his lyrics. A brilliant storyteller, he sculpts fluid music copiously nourished by woody percussion sounds and flamboyant backing vocals. His songs draw metaphors to achieve a dazzling parable effect.

The singer explains that storytelling is a heritage of ancestral society. “I’m loyal to the oral civilisation I come from. Aside from that, I think it’s also a way of expressing what’s on my mind. Artists can’t sing aimlessly. Art should be a hotbed of protest in society to avoid it stagnating. Stories provide this possibility of protest. They say one thing and mean another.” While he was a student in France, Pierre Akendengué was banned from the airwaves in Gabon and even from returning there. He was guilty of belonging to the AGEG – the General Association of Gabonese Students, a Marxist organisation. Times change though. Since 2004, he has been personal advisor to the President of the Republic of Gabon, responsible for cultural affairs, youth and sport. The songs he writes convey his philosophical and humanist aspirations; his commitment shines through them. Pierre Akendengué refuses to sing solely for pleasure. “The artist’s role,” he emphasises, “is to sound the alarm, enlighten people and heighten their awareness.” He does this as best he can, whatever clouds, pitfalls and frowns life may bring, because he still believes in his ideals. So he sings about his dreams of freedom, his hopes of a united Africa and his trust in humanity. He sings in French, the language of his audiences when he started out, and in Myene, his native tongue. “Since I don’t sing to pass the time, I try to convey a number of my ancestral culture’s values, things that involve my native language and are often untranslatable. It’s essential that we preserve the vitality of our languages. A country that loses its language loses its culture and so its identity.” On Afrika Obota (one of two covers, along with Considérable, re-recorded for Vérité d’Afrique), he sings of African unity, something he sees as fundamental. “I still believe in it – more and more, in fact. If Africa is to construct its political and economic independence, it really must unite. With the help of our survival instinct, we’ll achieve unity in the end. Humanity isn’t in the business of scuppering itself. I believe in our ability to react. African unity is part of that reaction. Dreams of unity aren’t at all utopian. They were behind the OAU – now disbanded – which re-appeared as the African Union, actually much more efficient than the former OAU, which often used to simply mark time. The African Union intervenes more in African conflicts.”

Neuza was born in 1985 in Praia, the capital city of Cape Verde on the island of Santiago. Her mother, who was born in the island of Fogo, had moved in Praia in the 1980s in search of a better life. There would sing in the city’s bars in exchange for food, tobacco and drink, while Neuza would stay at home in their humble stone house under the care of her older sisters.
Neuza was only 6 when the excess of tobacco took her mother away forever. The little girl went to live with her godmother in Fogo. She went back and forth from one island to the other while finishing her studies. From her mom, Neuza kept the sound of the melodies she had always heard her sing; a good ear as well. She soon learnt the traditional songs from the Island of the Volcano from the passengers singing to avoid being too bored or sick during that dangerous crossing. But she was reluctant to embrace a musical career; it recalled too many bad memories. On the contrary, when she became a mother herself, Neuza chose an ordinary life with a normal job.

But destiny was stronger than her will. She was working in a restaurant when she was 24 and due to her fun and happy personality, she often sang while setting the room before service. Her co-workers were stunned by the clarity of the young woman’s voice and encouraged her to take the microphone and give it a try in front of an audience. Hesitant at first, Neuza finally jumped in and soon gained more and more fans among the restaurant’s customers.
Later, Manuel de Candinho invited her to perform on the stage of a famous restaurant in Praia where she earns her first fee. That night, her lived changed. Upon the invitation of other artists, she started singing in other venues of the Cape Verdean capital. One day, Francisco Cruz, a friend, brought Jose Da Silva to listen to the young lady in a bar. The singer’s high pitched voice and her repertoire made of traditions from Fogo hardly ever recorded on disc decided the producer to offer to record for the Harmonia label.

At the beginning of summer 2013, “Flor di Bila” unveils the secrets of Fogo Island rythms such as talaia baxo, rabolo or samba. In “Trabessado”, one of the main titles of this album, Neuza gives an opportunity to discover curcutiçan, a traditional lyrical battle between female and male voices using irony and provocation, the women taking the men on their virility. Neuza presents this tradition from the countryside along with Michel Montrond who is an author, composer and singer and a volcano child as well.

Lúcio Matias de Sousa Mendes, better known by his stage name of Mário Lúcio, was born in Tarrafal on the island of Santiago in Cape Verde on the 21^stOctober 1964. He went to primary school there until his father died when he was just twelve. He was then taken in by the Cape Verdean army. When his mother died three years later, she left 8 orphaned children. Mário Lúcio completed his secondary education in the care of the military authorities and lived in the Tarrafal barracks, which had long served as a concentration camp during the colonial period. He won a scholarship which allowed him to study in the capital, Praia, then in 1984, a grant from the Cuban government to study law in Havana. He returned to Cape Verde six years later to work as a lawyer. In 1992, he was appointed cultural advisor to the Ministry of Culture. From 1996 to 2001, he was a member of the Cape Verdean parliament.

Mário Lúcio Sousa founded the group Simentera, which marked the seminal return of Cape Verdean music to its acoustic roots and claimed mainland African culture as an integral part of Cape Verdean cultural identity. His ideas brought him an appointment as advisor to the commissioner responsible for Expo 92 in Seville. At the fair – and later at Expo 98 in Lisbon – he developed musical projects to represent his country.

Mário Lúcio Sousa plays a range of musical instruments and has arranged a number of albums for other Cape Verdean artists. He is a founding member and director of the “Quintal da Música” association, which runs a private cultural centre dedicated to the promotion of traditional music. Children can learn and develop their talents there.

When did his talent for music appear? Back in his childhood, obviously. It couldn’t have been any other way. Many of his family were involved in music to a greater or lesser extent. You can’t escape your surroundings, the obsessions and passions of the people closest to you. Bau’s father was a stringed-instrument maker in Mindelo, the port of São Vicente island, the most famous in the Archipelago since the success of Cesaria Evora, also a native of this scrap of land that is also the home of many of Cape Verde’s greatest artists and composers. Rufino Almeida was born there on the 19th December 1962. At the time, nobody knew that he would one day be know as Bau, tour the world with Cesaria Evora, record several solo albums, leave his mark (“Raquel”) on the original soundtrack of a film by Pedro Almodovar, “Habla con ella” (Talk to her). When his father, who enjoyed playing the violin himself, handed Bau a cavaquinho when he was just six, he didn’t realized what it would lead to. He had know idea that as he grew up, his son (and he was to be his first music teacher) would fall unconditionally in love with this small, high-pitched, four-string guitar and become a virtuoso, like the instrument’s Brazilian master, Waldir Azevedo. Azavedo would later be one of Bau’s models.

When the boy was 17, he formed his first group, Gaiatos, with Tito Paris and Bius. Now he called himself Bau, a nickname taken from Djoy, a footballer in the local team that he particularly admired. Every weekend, he played with Gaiatos in Mindelo, in a discotheque called Katem, a club that has since been transformed and renamed Café Musique, where groups can still be seen today. When Tito Paris left for Lisbon and the keyboards player began his national service, the venture came to an end. It had lasted one year. A new affair began, named Grito de Mindelo, a group with a vocation for dance music, like Gaiatos. Their repertoire combined local styles (funana, coladeira), zouk and Marley. These were the days of open-air dances, very popular at the time, but which failed to stand up to the competition of the discotheques that became highly popular with young people in Mindelo. At the end of the 80s, Bau abandoned the electric guitar that he had generally played until then and began to work on an acoustic project, mainly drawing on Cape Verdean tradition with forays into Brazilian music. He was also determined to highlight the possibilities of the cavaquinho as a solo instrument. Why this sudden turnabout? “I discovered the range of our music. It was pointless to carry on imitating things from other countries when we could put our hearts into serving traditional music from our country, the music my father played at home,” explains Bau.

At the start of the 90s, he recorded his first album with the Mindel Band, including the first pieces he had written himself – “Mindelo” (Lusafrica) – and performed on “Mar Azul”, the album that launched Cesaria Evora in 1991. In 1994, he joined the singer’s orchestra and, two years later, became its musical director, before passing the baton to pianist Nando Andrade in 1999. From the beginning of the 90s, Bau has published 6 solo albums of a sparkling beauty.
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Jenifer Solidade is a young singer with a husky, modern, generous, incredibly stylish voice! Born in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente, she began her artistic career backing such great musicians as Tito Paris, Ildo Lobo, Nancy Vieira and Mayra Andrade.

Ultimately, though, it was in the clubs of Cape Verde that she made her name, particularly with her highly distinctive cover of Hit the Road Jack, she popularized the end of 2013 through a video.

 Jenifer Solidade just recorded her first solo album entitled “Um Click”, which means  “One Click”, in reference to the title “Cuidôd Na Click” (Be aware to click) in which the singer asks to pay attention to what you publish on social networks.

Dino Santiago was born in 1982 in the Algarve, southern Portugal province. His parents are from the island of Santiago in Cape Verde. Finalist in 2003 of a reality TV program on Portuguese television, he then pointed in various electro nu soul groups of the scene in Lisbon. He decided in 2012 to delve into the roots of Cape Verde, a fusion between traditional rhythms and fado.