Portinglês Carmen Souza & Theo Pascal

• 1 St. Jago 03:50
• 2 Pamodi 04:47
• 3 Cais D'port Inglês 04:36
• 4 Ariope! 03:25
• 5 Francis Drum 03:36
• 6 Amizadi 04:40
• 7 Badju Mandadu 04:06
• 8 Moringue 04:17
• Total Runtime 33:17

Info for Portinglês

Port’Inglês (English port) is a musical tale of Islands. The untold stories of the British presence in Cape Verde and the decolonisation struggle sang in the unique style of Carmen Souza. In this new music, Jazz speaks a language of freedom that is meaningful to all cultures and blends perfectly with traditional music and rhythms like Funana, Contradança, Morna or Mazurka—reflecting the multi-layered hybridity of Cape Verde itself. Port’Inglês is also released in a year Portugal is celebrating 50 years of the Carnation Revolution the military coup that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974. This movement paved the way for the end of Wars in the colonial A frica and open ed the door for their Independence from Portugal.

After residing in the UK for 16 years, Souza uses her music to delve into the unexpected connections between her motherland, Cape Verde, and the United Kingdom, a country that has nurtured her creativity. Inspired by her master’s thesis on the British presence in Cape Verde, Carmen Souza embarked on a deeply personal and musically enriching journey. Crafting a collection of original songs deeply rooted in the Islands’ spirit, she retells the stories of these two cultures’ encounters and their lasting impact on Cape Verde after centuries of English presence. This journey is a testament to her passion and dedication to her craft, inviting the audience to share in her musical exploration.

“I drew inspiration from the tales told in Cape Verde to create this musical suite. Through my research for my master’s thesis, I sought to embody this historical period through music. The album explores themes of cultural identity, resistance, colonialism and the ongoing struggle for decolonisation, highlighting the connection between Cape Verde and the UK. Inspiration came from popular tales, tales of the sea, and even Sea Shanties from British Folk Music.”

Like the people who inhabit the islands, Cape Verde’s music is of mixed cultural descent. Souza and Pascal have been taking risks with their signature sound for over two decades, using Jazz to create a new Creole musical language featuring their Lusophone/Cape Verde DNA. Their music has never seemed so in sync with the vibrant UK jazz scene, where Jazz is much closer to its multicultural audiences, open and welcoming to other influences.

In Port’Inglês, Jazz speaks a language of freedom that is meaningful to all cultures and blends perfectly with traditional music and rhythms like Funana, Contradança, Morna or Mazurka—reflecting the multi-layered hybridity of Cape Verde itself. Improvisation further blurs the boundaries between culturally specific kinds of music. Carmen Souza’s voice shows a variety of textured registers that explore the subtleties of her expressional range. The sound is direct and clear, giving each song a sense of “liveness.”

Souza’s long-time collaborator as bassist, creative producer, and composer, Theo Pascal, comments, “Our priority was to allow each instrument’s acoustic ‘colours’ to shine through organically, without requiring extensive digital processing or effects. The use of analogue and other digital recording techniques is a nod to the historical nature of the stories we tell here, adding a layer of authenticity to the album.”

A group of talented musicians of Lusophone and British origin contributed to this rich musical tapestry. On piano, Deschanel Gordon (UK), Diogo Santos (PT), João Oliveira (Angola). On drums, two Londoners, Elias Kacomanolis (Mozambique) and Zoe Pascal (UK, PT). On trumpet, Mark Kavuma (UK) and Gareth Lockrane on flute (UK). Carmen Souza also plays the piano and guitar.

Carmen Souza, vocals
Theo Pascal, bass

Carmen Souza
was born into a Cape Verdean family in Lisbon, Portugal on May 20th, 1981. Although Souza has only visited Cape Verde herself a couple of times, she grew up speaking Creole and eating Cape Verdean dishes. As a child, she sang gospel music in the church choir. Her parents kept close ties with the diaspora, so Souza was exposed to the music and culture of Cape Verde, as well as the former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, and São Tomé. Her father, Antonio, a merchant sailor, insisted that she learn English and German. She left college after only a year to pursue her music career.

In 1999, Souza began working with bassist Theo Pascal, who would become her mentor and continue to perform alongside her. They met when she auditioned for a music project that Pascal was directing. Initially, she performed with him in a Portuguese-language gospel choir. Souza sings and plays the piano and guitar, co-writing songs with Pascal. In 2003, they began experimenting with a style that combined Cape Verde Creole music, including the batuque, coladeira, and morna genres, with contemporary jazz. Souza typically sings in Creole because its variants allow for more flexibility in melding language with different cadences than more formal languages allow. However, she also sings in English, French, and Portuguese. Her voice has been described as “alternately chirpy and grave,” and Africa Today has called her a “soul diva voice.” Souza’s work transforms the traditional Cape Verde morna, adding jazz and personal invention, such as vocal experiments that use her pitch and tone to emulate musical instruments.

In 2005, Souza released her debut album, Ess ê nha Cabo Verde, which was the first West African-jazz blend adapted to an acoustic vibe. Her second release, Verdade (Truth), came in 2008. The album featured the duo’s blend of African and jazz music set to Wurlitzer electric piano and guitar, and won critical acclaim. A re-release of the album in 2010 by Galileo Records was included in several best world music lists for the year. Three years later, they followed up with Protegid (Protected), featuring Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and French accordionist Marc Berthoumieux with Souza on Rhodes piano, guitar, and vocals. Protegid blends Cape Verdean music with traditional jazz and includes updates on jazz standards, such as Horace Silver’s famous tune, Song for my Father. Carmen’s vocal chorus takes note by note Horace Silver’s chorus on the first version of this standard. The album was nominated for the German Record Critic’s Award and earned a ranking on the World Music Charts Europe (WMCE).

In 2012, Souza chose to donate half of the proceeds from her album, Duo (also known as London Acoustic Set), to charity. Most of the album was recorded at the Green Note Club in London with two tracks produced in 2010 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. All of the tracks had been previously released on her other albums, but all were new, live interpretations. Kachupada, named after a type of Cape Verdean food, was her fifth album and was released the following year. Kachupada includes her version of two jazz classics, “Donna Lee” and “My Favorite Things”. She followed with an album released in 2014 called Live at Lagny Jazz Festival, which features musicians Ben Burrell on piano, Elias Kacomanolis on drums and percussion, and her music partner Pas’cal, playing acoustic and electric bass. Souza’s accolades for the album included “one of the most talented and innovative vocalists in the present-day jazz and world music scene”.

This album contains no booklet.