Carmen Souza
Kachupada
Galileo ***
The input of the music of the Cape Verde islands in jazz, particularly as it appears indirectly within the music of Horace Silver and more directly with the late Cesária Évora, is considerable, and Souza, who’s in her early thirties from Lisbon of Cape Verdean descent is another part of the stream merging local folkloric musics and jazz. Released in France as long ago as September the new album comes out in the UK next month. Called Kachupada, after a well loved Cape Verdean dish, Souza is certainly not brand new, but fairly unknown to jazz audiences in the UK, although world music fans know of her here more but she has mutual appeal it’s clear. A decade ago the singer whose voice has a lingering contralto lilt was first working with the producer bassist Theo Pas’cal and she debuted in 2003 with an album that mixed Creole, African and Cape Verdean rhythms. Poppy at times, but not as light as a singer such as Luisa Sobral, on the new album Souza lets loose some lively vocalese on tracks such as ‘Tchega’, and there are jazz standards such as ‘Donna Lee’ and ‘My Favourite Things’ here sparkily handled, with a sympathetic band varying in size as the album tracks demand. So, a laidback sound with plenty of jazz textures (fine instrumental solos for instance saxophonist Guto Lucena’s on ‘Terra Sab’ [‘Amazing Land’]), along with pleasurable rhythms in abundance, although saudade is never far away. SG