AMERICAN / INDIANA KAVITA SHAH PAYS TRIBUTE TO CESÁRIA ÉVORA AND THE MUSIC OF CAPE VERDE
It's a tribute in the form of an album. Award-winning American singer and songwriter Kavita Shah has just released her new album entitled “Cape Verdean Blues”, the result of her journey through Cape Verde “in search of spiritual peace”, as she likes to say.
To do this work Kavita, born in the United States to Indian immigrants, Kavita did extensive ethnomusical research on the island of São Vicente where she met Vasco Martins, Bau and other local artists who participated in “Cape Verdean Blues”, as well as Fantcha, Miroca Paris, Zé Paris, etc.
The album, which was recorded in Mindelo, Lisbon and New York, has 12 songs - warm, coladeiras and some own compositions - and they all revolve around the theme 'sodade'.
As an acclaimed jazz singer, Kavita enriched the songs with elegant and sensual improvisations. The musical arrangement is also of superior quality, with a genuine Cape Verdean “flavor”.
“CESAREAN CHANGED MY LIFE”
One of the great voices in jazz today, Kavita does not hide her admiration for Cesária Evora, who she says changed her life as soon as she heard her for the first time:
“What attracted me most about Cesária is that she was completely authentic. Barefoot, smoking, drinking, she rarely smiled or tried to entertain the audience. She just sang” - recalls Kavita, adding:
“As a 'person of color,' seeing a black woman whose greatest strength was her AUTHENTICITY was something that transformed me. Changed my life ".
This change took place in Cape Verde, which he visited for the first time in 2016. In 2018 he received a grant from a North American foundation to formally study the culture and music of Cape Verde and it was from this study that the album “Cape Verdean Blues” was organically born. ”.
Kavita, who says she found comfort and solidarity in Cape Verde, hopes that this album evokes the same feeling in listeners:
“In this paradise in the middle of the Atlantic I found that sense of belonging that had eluded me throughout my 37 years. When I revisit the past I realize that when I first heard Cesária a decade ago, she was really showing me the path I have to take in the search for sodaity.”
Some of the songs from the album “Cape Verdean Blues' are already on Kavita Shah's Yoube channel, to listen and enjoy:
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