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Carmen Souza

Carmen Souza was born in Lisbon (81) within a Christian family of Cape Verdeans. She grew up in a mixed language environment of Creole, the Cape Verde dialect her parents spoke at home, and Portuguese, always surrounded by the Cape Verdean way of life.

In her teens she sang professionally in a Lusophone Gospel Choir. Being a strongly spiritual person, Carmen always saw music as her mission and felt privileged to have the opportunity to express herself through it, working hard every day to deserve that opportunity. Musicians like Luis Morais, Theo Pas'cal, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarret, Diana Krall, etc, are definitely those that truly inspire her evolution and search for a unique personal style.

Theo Pas'cal, her producer and mentor and one of the best bass players in Portugal, discovered her talent and introduced Carmen to Jazz, Fusion and other contemporary sounds that markedly influenced her musical development.

In 2003, Carmen began working with Theo on the compositions that would be included on her début album Ess ê nha Cabo Verde. Carmen wanted to create a new sound, in her ancestor’s dialect Creole, that would mix traditional African and Cape Verde rhythms like Batuke, Morna, Cola djon, and others, with her jazz contemporary influences, in a totally intimate and acoustic vibe, different from the traditional festive environment of Cape Verdean sounds.

Ess ê nha Cabo Verde, was released two years later in 2005 to critical acclaim and led to her international breakthrough performance at the WOMAD at Reading Festival of the same year.

In “Verdade” her second album, which She co-produces and features on Wurlitzer and guitar, released in 2008, Carmen Souza signs an exciting and melodically vibrant repertoire in Creole that once again received amazing reviews from the International Press worldwide.

Since then Carmen has wowed the crowds on larger stages leaving a trace of deadly captivating performances with her unmistakably female, but dark, deep and earthy voice.

After 2 critically acclaimed albums, Carmen Souza returns in 2010 with the impressive "Protegid" (Protected) that blends perfectly with elegance and sophistication the African and Cape Verdean traditional rhythms with Contemporary Jazz and Afro-Latin. This groundbreaking album presents a highly innovative sound & a continuation of the work already initiated in the two previous albums: pushing the limits of what constitutes the Cape Verdean music, World Music and Jazz.

This new set of songs showcases Carmen Souza's excellent ability for melodies and lyrics while exploring her mesmerizing colourful, versatile and expressive voice.

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Interview

Carmen Souza: messaggera di una musica senza confini

Read "Carmen Souza: messaggera di una musica senza confini" reviewed by Paolo Marra


Ascoltare la musica e la voce di Carmen Souza significa immergersi in luoghi incontaminati di spiagge assolate e acque color turchese in cui il Jazz e la musica tradizionale di Capo Verde, la Morna, si incontrano per dare vita ad alchimie di suoni, profumi e suggestioni poliritmiche. Nata in Portogallo ma di origini Capoverdiane Carmen Souza ha pubblicato da poco Horace Silver Messangers, un tributo al grande pianista jazz anche lui, da parte del padre, di origini capoverdiane. ...

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Live Review

Kuching Waterfront Jazz Festival 2018: New Contender on the South East Asia Block

Read "Kuching Waterfront Jazz Festival 2018: New Contender on the South East Asia Block" reviewed by Rob Garratt


Kuching Waterfront Jazz Festival 2018 Grand Margherita Hotel Kuching, Sarawak State, Borneo September 28-29, 2018 As one of the world's fastest growing economic regions, South East Asia is also a prime market for jazz--and, specifically, that chest- beating claxon of affluence, the festival. Joining the established ranks of Indonesia's Java Jazz and Singapore's Sing Jazz, enters the Kuching Waterfront Jazz Festival (KWJF), in September 2018 sprouting up on the north-western tip of Borneo for a ...

1
Album Review

Carmen Souza feat. Theo Pascal: Creology

Read "Creology" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Ha toccato anche l'Italia in cinque date tra aprile e maggio il tour mondiale di Carmen Souza, associato all'uscita del suo ottavo disco Creology. La cantante portoghese d'origini capoverdiane conferma il sodalizio col suo mentore e produttore, il contrabbassista Theo Pascal, e col percussionista Elias Kacomanolis. In qualche brano si aggiunge il giovanissimo figlio di Pascal, Zoe. Il percorso è particolarmente ricco di suggestioni. Dotata di una pronuncia personalissima e di una capacità interpretativa unica, Carmen Souza ...

655
Album Review

Carmen Souza: Protegid

Read "Protegid" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


One often hears the expression, “It's all over the map." But it's rarely used been more truthfully or appropriately than when applied to Protegid, the third album by vocalist Carmen Souza, born in Lisbon, of Cape Verdean descent, and now residing in London. 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 ...

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3

Performance / Tour

Carmen Souza Announces New Album And North American Tour

Carmen Souza Announces New Album And North American Tour

Source: Press Junkie PR

The fact that Carmen Souza and Theo Pas‘cal complement each other musically in an ingenious way has already been shown in their successful cooperation over the last few years. The latest studio-album called Kachupada, that was recorded in London and Lisbon will be released in North America on June 11, 2013, continues this tradition. The title of the album was inspired by the favorite Cape Verdean dish Kachupada that, with its wide variety of ingredients and spices, reflects the multiplicity ...

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Recording

Carmen Souza Savors Cape Verdean Swing & Red-Hot Sodade

Carmen Souza Savors Cape Verdean Swing & Red-Hot Sodade

Source: rock paper scissors, inc.

Carmen Souza's voice purrs like kernels of corn swirling on a traditional wooden platter one moment and bursts with a perfect blue note the next. It rings like a red-hot solo and sighs like a ship-deck lament. It finds the sweet spot between Birdland and the white sands of Cape Verde, the archipelago far off the coast of West Africa.

Protegid (Galileo Music; June 8, 2010), the London-based musician and songwriter's latest album, lives in this magical Trans-Atlantic space, thoughtfully ...

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

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Creology

Galileo Music
2017

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Kachupada

Line Records
2012

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Protegid

Galileo Music
2010

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Videos

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