CESARIA EVORA - Radio Mindelo (Tumbao)

This well-presented record of the Barefoot Diva's earliest recordings offers a fascinating taste of the early development of Cape Verde's most celebrated singer. Still only in her early 20s when she recorded this series of songs for Radio Barlavento in her home town of Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente, Cesaria had already been singing for half a dozen years or so, and there's already a confidence to her delivery, the maturity already evident in the way she holds the long, mournful notes or playfully dances over the lighter rhythms. The recording quality is reasonable if slightly muted in places, these recordings originally having been made live to reel-to-reel tape in front of a single microphone. Known as Cize at the time (the title of one of the highlights of the collection), Cesaria's repertoire is split between the uptempo "coladeiras" that were popular in this era (the early 60s), and what was considered a more old-fashioned style - morna - with which she became world famous.
No details remain of the exact dates of the recordings, and the musicians on the songs remain largely anonymous (only scant contemporaneous details were kept), but the instrumental template is familiar enough - simple light percussion, guitar (usually acoustic) and Evora's rich, assured vocal the main elements in these twenty-two short, timeless numbers (about half of which were written by the legendary Ti Goy).
Terezinha is the highlight, it was Cesaria's first big hit, an uptempo Latino dance number with a catchy mambo rhythm, light electric guitar and a beguiling, playful chatty vocal from Cize. Other tracks are more redolent of the singer's later shifting midtempo music, as well as the more downbeat, sodade-sodden stuff that have become such an indelible part of the musical landscape.
It's all delivered in a nicely packaged CD (with early pictures of an an unmistakeable cherubic Cesaria, young, pretty and relaxed) and with enough musical heft and variety to appeal to fans of the singer's later work. A successful recording career soon followed these radio performances, and it's not difficult to see why when you hear this charming folk-rooted music and the friendly, soulful tone with which it is being delivered.

TITINA - Cruel Destino (Astral)

Comparisons with Cape Verde’s Queen of morna, Cesaria Evora, are inevitable and hard to avoid. But if there’s one thing better than having one evocative interpreter of the islands’ soulful folk music, that’s being blessed with two of them.

The similarities between Abertina ‘Titina’ Rodrigues Almeida and her illustrious compatriot are plentiful — well past the first flush of youth, she possesses a smooth, yearning, laid-back vocal style that sings mournful songs of love and longing for the Cape Verde islands over guitar, piano and bass backing. Just the occasional mid-tempo number is dropped in to remind the listener of the islands’ links with the bossa-nova and samba of Brazil.

Titina, too, looks like receiving worldwide favour at a relatively late stage of her career, having ditched recording for live performances over the last decade, before eventually being persuaded to record this lushly arranged (by guitarist Bau) set of Cape Verdean standards.

The differences? Well, much more use of clarinet, played with understated mellifluousness by Daniel Salomé, particularly on the jaunty, mid-tempo Saia Travada where he weaves his notes over a stop-start piano rhythm as Titina croons about her desire to return to her country of origin. There’s real feeling in that song, not least because Titina is now based in Lisbon, and the Portugese influence is apparent on tracks such as Desgosto Profundo, with its light dusting of fado guitar work by Osvaldo Dias.

If I’m allowed one more comparison with Cesaria it’s that if you like that great lady’s smoother recordings, where the light, lilting rhythms and subtle acoustic guitar or piano fills are ridden by her voice of limited range but bottomless feeling — and the sound of that being mixed with snaking, soulful clarinet and violin appeals to you — then Cruel Destino is an album that comes highly recommended.

This review first appeared on www.flyglobalmusic.com

MAYRA ANDRADE - Navega (Stern's)

Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade has just been named as a nominee for Best Newcomer in the 2008 Awards For World Music, and her classy album Navega has a musical depth and consistency to more than warrant that honour. At first it’s quite difficult to get past the opening track on the album, Dimokransa (Democracy), a light and airy song of dashed democratic hopes and one of the defining world music moments of 2007. Possessing a seductive lusaphone swing one expects from the music of the Cape Verde islands (situated off the West coat of Africa, but with a strong relationship to Brazil), the song is spiced with an extra lyrical bite and one of those hooks that immediately feel as if they have been around forever. Andrade has a strong, smoky voice, not as blues-soaked or evocative as fellow Cape Verdean Cesaria Evora, but with enough depth of expression to carry off the range of styles employed on the album. Further investigation reveals touches of samba, jazz, the occasional morna piece (Poc Li Dente E Tcheu a particular highlight), chanson (the catchy French-language Comme S’Il En Pleuvait) and the rootsier Cape Verdeane styles, funana and batuku (the best example being the funky Lua, which is similar in name and style to Mayra’s compatriot and batuku stylist Lura). Scattered throughout the collection also are what might be termed straight “world” music songs which reflect Myra Andrade’s international background (Cuba, West Africa and — currently — Paris have all been home for a songstress still in her early 20s) — soft-focus, mostly-acoustic music with accordion and horns colouring in the percussion, bass and acoustic guitar, all providing a framework for the effortless, confidently cool (but never too languid) vocals of a highly talented young woman. Always charming but never boring, this is an impressive introduction indeed.

This review first appeared on www.flyglobalmusic.com