:: TIMES SQUARE RECORDS ::

When the influence of Black Africa was leaving its mark on the music of the 1980s, not a single note came from Cape Verde, situated 500 km off the coast
of Dakar. Times have changed.

The music of this archipelago went on to gain world recognition thanks to Cesaria Evora and her indescribable morna, a song of melancholy, the very sound of a troubled soul. Since then, other styles and indeed other ambassadors of Cape Verdean music have appeared, like Ildo Lobo, Bana, Bau, Tito Paris, Maria Alice and Teofilo Chantre. And, of course, Simentera, created in 1992 by Mario Lucio. From the rich vocal fabric of Simentera, one voice in particular stood out, immediately seductive, strong and warm: the voice of Tété Alhinho. The group’s first album, "Raiz", which includes two of her own songs, bears witness to this accomplished singer’s additional talents as songwriter/composer, talents she had already proved long before. "Voz", her new album, shows that for Tété Alhinho there is life after Simentera (or rather alongside it, as that beautiful "group love affair"lives on with her), there was also life before Simentera, filled with music and song.

Born in Mindelo, in June 1956, Tété Alhinho now lives in Praia, capital of Cape Verde, on the island of Santiago. There, she has a room with a view… of the sea. Such surroundings have an unparalleled capacity for allowing her to slip away and let her imagination run wild to the sound of the waves, and for feeding her inspiration. “From my bed I see only the ocean, it’s wonderful”. When she speaks of this nest she has made for herself, her voice seems to sparkle with enthusiasm. Tété Alhinho has lived near the sea since the day she was born. In fact, she couldn’t do without it. “For island people”, she says, “it is impossible to live without it. The sea is a constant source of nostalgia and, for us Cape Verdeans, the feeling of saudade.

From as far back as she can remember, she says, she has always sung: from her childhood up to the present, through her past collaborations with Os Tubaores, Voz de Cabo Verde, Ritmos de Cabo Verde, to Simentera and her own albums. But how did she succeed as a singer and achieve an artistic career? It could certainly be said that luck played some part. Or perhaps it was something do with the feeling that engulfed her, when she stepped on stage for the first time, aged 5, to recite a poem (“that day, my fate was sealed”). Then, barely three years later, she stood in at the last minute for a singer in a show she had to present to the audience.

There was also the piano at home “where we sang all the time”, with her mother gently rocking her to the sound old mornas and her father (who allowed her, but not her brothers and sisters, to sing and dance). With her father, she remembers, “we would sometimes spend the whole night, lying out on the ground, singing in the light of the moon”.

When she left Mindelo, it was to go and study in Portugal, her father’s birthplace. She would stay there only a year, however, as the country was experiencing major unrest at the time. After the Carnation Revolution, when the university was closed, she headed for Cuba. Her stay there, and her studies, would last five years. She later recorded the first of her own albums in Portugal, in 1989. "Mares do Sul" was followed in 1995 by "Menino das Ilhas", aimed mostly at children, and then came "Sentires" (1999), recorded in Senegal, with songs in Spanish, one of which was "Yolanda", by Pablo Milanes, an important figure in the nueva trova musical movement in Cuba, and finally "De cor a som" (2000).

Refined, warmly intimate, and quivering with a melancholic elegance, "Voz", the new album, is a tête-à-tête, a moment of sharing between Tété Alhinho and Mario Lucio, the friend and companion with whom she has worked for years. Apart from the special relationship they enjoyed throughout Simentera, he also produced her two earlier records. “Voz”, observes Tété Alhinho, ”is the very natural thing that exists between two people who are used to playing together, and who feel things in the same way. With just one guitar, Mario encapsulates the whole range of emotions the members of Simentera make you feel”.

From the languid mornas to the fresh coladeras of this album, her voice, rich and warm, underlines her character and plays with the silences, free in the daylight, like a bird flying over the sea.
Patrick Labesse

TETE ALHINHO