NOMINATED FOR BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM FOR
GERMAN RECORD CRITIC'S AWARD (2010)
WORLD MUSIC CHARTS EUROPE (APRIL 2010) -
PROTEGID # 17
WORLD MUSIC CHARTS EUROPE (AUGUST 2010)-
VERDADE # 12
“Carmen Souza's vivacious “Protegid” opens a window to
another world entirely, cranking up the tempo, slicing up the
syncopated rhythm to resembleThelonious Monk's
”Evidence” and allowing her to power her voice with the
assured intuition and inventiveness of a jazz singer.” SONG
OF THE DAY - NPR - USA
“Singing in a colorful, eclectic Portuguese-based Creole,
Souza illuminates, stretches, and snaps back the elastic
connections between Latin, African and Arabic music,
American jazz and the music of Cape Verde.
Souza conclusively proves that the “world music”
evolution/revolution has transformed modern vocal as well as
instrumental music.” ALL ABOUT JAZZ-USA
“The whole disc is a landmark that will prompt you to embrace
and at the same time rethink everything you know and love
about the sounds of Cape Verde.” WORLD MUSIC
CENTRAL-USA
4 STARS “Sometimes this Cape Verdean singer's sound is
pure Billie Holiday, sometimes she gives the impression of
Eartha Kitt on speed, sometimes her vocal pyrotechnics
evoke a young Cleo Laine...The title means “protected”, and
the poetic voice is as original as the musical one.” THE
SCOTSMAN-UK
4 STARS “Suprising is her version of Horace's Silvers 'Song
for my father' Pianoplayer Idiabonya lets the influence of
Chucho Valdes play here and together with Carmen and
bassplayer Theo Pas'cal they create a gripping version of
Cape Verdian Afro Jazz fusion.” JAZZ MAGAZINE-NL
4 STARS “Incredible original voice...surprising version of
”Sodade”..
Read more
NOMINATED FOR BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM FOR
GERMAN RECORD CRITIC'S AWARD (2010)
WORLD MUSIC CHARTS EUROPE (APRIL 2010) -
PROTEGID # 17
WORLD MUSIC CHARTS EUROPE (AUGUST 2010)-
VERDADE # 12
“Carmen Souza's vivacious “Protegid” opens a window to
another world entirely, cranking up the tempo, slicing up the
syncopated rhythm to resembleThelonious Monk's
”Evidence” and allowing her to power her voice with the
assured intuition and inventiveness of a jazz singer.” SONG
OF THE DAY - NPR - USA
“Singing in a colorful, eclectic Portuguese-based Creole,
Souza illuminates, stretches, and snaps back the elastic
connections between Latin, African and Arabic music,
American jazz and the music of Cape Verde.
Souza conclusively proves that the “world music”
evolution/revolution has transformed modern vocal as well as
instrumental music.” ALL ABOUT JAZZ-USA
“The whole disc is a landmark that will prompt you to embrace
and at the same time rethink everything you know and love
about the sounds of Cape Verde.” WORLD MUSIC
CENTRAL-USA
4 STARS “Sometimes this Cape Verdean singer's sound is
pure Billie Holiday, sometimes she gives the impression of
Eartha Kitt on speed, sometimes her vocal pyrotechnics
evoke a young Cleo Laine...The title means “protected”, and
the poetic voice is as original as the musical one.” THE
SCOTSMAN-UK
4 STARS “Suprising is her version of Horace's Silvers 'Song
for my father' Pianoplayer Idiabonya lets the influence of
Chucho Valdes play here and together with Carmen and
bassplayer Theo Pas'cal they create a gripping version of
Cape Verdian Afro Jazz fusion.” JAZZ MAGAZINE-NL
4 STARS “Incredible original voice...surprising version of
”Sodade”... chilling “Mara Marga” TIME OUT LISBON-PT
4 STARS “It's tempting to compare any female Cape Verdean
singer to the godmother of the island's indigenous morna
music, Cesaria Evora, but that would be unfair to a vocalist as
gifted, and as singular, as Carmen Souza...Souza's voice is a
remarkably lithe instrument, sensual, percussive, soulful, and
capable of exploring multiple moods within a given line of a
given track.” ALL MUSIC GUIDE-USA
5 STARS “Souza’s throaty, shaky, wide-ranging vocals
sometimes need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but her
instinct for the tone of a tune is rarely off and when she needs
to sing a simple line, her voice has warmth and character.
One gets the feeling she’s a team player and indeed with
Pas’cal’s compositions, strong instrumental performances
and Souza’s empathy, it is this feeling of genuine music-
making that shines through this collection.” CULTURE
CAPITAL-UK
4 STARS- JAZZTHETIK-DE
4 STARS- WORLD MUSIC MAGAZINE- SP
4 STARS- ATHENS VOICE-GR
“The lyrics this Cape Verdean singer has written have a vivid,
passionate energy;Backed with rippling accompaniments from
a band blending Afro-Latin and contemporary jazz effects,
she beats up a very unusual storm. Just one song �”
”Sodade” �” plugs her into the grand Cape Verdean tradition,
but shows how far she has moved from its original exponent,
Cesaria Evora.” THE INDEPENDENT-UK
“Carmen Souza may share a Creole tongue with her Cape
Verdean-rooted contemporaries, but that's where the
comparisons end. Her voice is singular, mercurial and slightly
androgynous. It has a kind of dawn-to-dusk range that
approximates several performers simultaneously, bearing
more relation to Billie Holiday or even Tom Zé than to Mayra
Andrade or Sara Tavares.” SONGLINES-UK
“This album is an excellent brain-food.” JAZZTHING-DE
“Some adventurous and lively Cape Verdean action - Omar
Sosa lends a hand but Carmen Souza can stand upon her
own music feet, no question.” WORLD MUSIC CHARTS
EUROPE
“Protegid, the new album, is definitely a jazz album, and also
definitely a Cape Verdean album...Carmen’s music reminds
me of music back in the seventies, simultaneously solid and
experimental, both inspiration and entertaining, elegantly
serious and dancingly enjoyable...” BREATH OF LIFE-USA
“Imagine if Billie Holiday sang in Creole and revisited her
African roots then you would be half way to describing the
voice of Cape Verdean Carmen Souza. The globetrotting
musician possesses one of the most out-of-this-world voices
to come along in a long time.On her album Protegid Carmen
gives her vocals a tour of the African Diaspora, leaping back
and forth between Cape Verdean music and American jazz.
She sings in half-scat and half glissando uttering phrases in
alto and then trilling in the soprano with her heavy vibrato
voice fluttering like nervous birds. I recall Zap Mama more
than I do Cesaria Evora, the Queen of Cape Verdean song.”
by Patricia Herlevi at WHOLE MUSIC EXP.-USA
“With the purr of the late Eartha Kitt, Carmen Souza pours the
heart into her music, with the same effect...sensitive , intimate
and vivaciuos all the things found in Souza's music.”BOSTON
POST-GAZETTE-USA
“Sophisticated and elegant, with a voice to match, Souza puts
American jazz to the music of the Cape Verde Islands.”THE
STAR-CA
MARK OF EXCELLENCE”Souza croons and purrs her way
through stunning track after stunning track. Driving hard on
the lively “Tentê Midj,” only to evoke aching despair on
”Sodade,” Souza's voice is the embodiment of
emotion.”EXCLAIM-CA
“Her voice, intuitive and powerful as the best jazz singers, is
elegant even when she hits the limits of her personal
proposal. [Carmen Souza is] one of those artists that with
each new album makes an extensive exercise of her
independence.”
SONS DE LA MEDITERRANIA MAGAZINE- SP
“Spectacular, flexible and brilliant voice” RITMOS DEL
MUNDO MAGAZINE- SP
“This Women should, go by her own right, to the podium of the
great female voices from Africa...”B!RITMOS- SP
“Carmen Souza is certainly one of the most interesting voices
of the new generation of so-called World Music...World Music
with Class” MESCALINA- IT
“Carmen Souza, c'est une pincée de Billie Holiday, un
soupçon de Nina Simone et un c�'té rebelle à la Mina Agossi.
Énergisante!” JAZZFRISON-FR
MORE REVIEWS AT: www.carmensouza-
protegid.blogspot.com
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Carmen Souza 
