The Whole Music Experience

World/ Jazz   Carmen Souza Kachupada   Galileo Music Cape Verdean-Portuguese vocalist (and songwriter) Carmen Souza returns with Kachupada .  Exploring jazz and African Diaspora musical styles, Souza pushes musical boundaries singing in a voice that could claim soul sister-ship with American folksinger Victoria Williams.  She opens with the effervescent Manhã l de Dezembro followed by an accordion-laced Donna Lee (American jazz given a French swing makeover).  How do you even begin to describe the third track, Luta (Fight) , other than pan-Africa meets Brazil and Cuba?  Souza sings with syncopation along with poly phonic percussion, savory flute, and beatnik bass lines. As eclectic as the musical portion sounds, Souza possesses an otherworldly voice that when it grounds itself becomes deliciously earthy.  The arrangements by Souza and her producer Theo Pas’cal surprise, tease, and tickle our ears.  Souza’s version of My F...

Carmen Souza Protegid (Protection) Galileo Music 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. Protegid feels more like world travel than world music. The album possesses everything from heavily syncopated Manhattan cabaret jazz to Afro-Latin grooves and energetic funana rhythms that introduce the song Afri Ka . Accordion, double bass, syncopated piano, various percussion, an...