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Oklahoma Gazette, Feature >>
Portuguese-based Lura will serve up tunes straight from Cape Verde Thursday at Stage Center
Lura
1 P.M. Thursday
Stage Center
From Wal-Mart to World Neighbors, the World Trade Organization to protesters in the streets against the WTO, there are many different versions and visions of globalization. Lura, a musical dynamo coming to heat up Stage Center on Thursday, offers not only fantastic Afro-Brazilian-Portuguese grooves based on her Cape Verdean heritage, but also one of the more hopeful visions of what a global community can mean.
Speaking in English, an unfamiliar tongue she still made poetic, she said in a recent telephone interview, "I feel that if I know all over the world very good, that (makes it easier) to know the real value of my county."
Born to parents from Cape Verde -- a group of islands off the coast of Western Africa inhabited by a blend of Portuguese, African and Brazilian descendants -- Lura grew up in Lisbon, Portugal, listening to Amercican pop and sould music. Stevie Wonder and Anita Baker were early favorites. When asked about the first song that really caught her attention, she sang, "I Just Called to Say I Love You" in a slow, low-pitched way that competely transformed the pop cliche.
But it wasn't long before the richness of transplanted Cape Verdean culture in Lisbon caught her attention. In 1992, the African zouk musician Jura invited her to perform with him at a show, and dance quickly became a side dish to the music Lura began creating.
When she was 21, she traveled to Cape Verde for the first time. Her exposure to the batuku style of music on her father's island of Santiago deeply impressed and inspired her. Its adaptability serves her well on her third and latest album, "Di Korpu Ku Alma" ("From Body to Soul").
Other Cape Verdean styles explored by Lura on this album include the accoridan-laced, erotic funana, also native to her father's island, and the minor-keyed morna, reminiscent of the Portuguese fado and originally made famous by Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evoria.
And she isn't finished exploring the richness of Cape Verdean music.
"I'm trying to learn more about other styles and use them on the next album. On my last album, I have many styles, but not every one. On the next album, I hope to include other styles," she said.
It might seem that this complex mix could overwhelm the listener, especially one unfamiliar with such styles, but as Lura pointed out, it all boils down to "African music with European influences -- a little blues, a little jazz. It is a music with a different sound, (but) you can recognize it."
"Recognize it" is an understated way to say it -- Lura's music speaks to the spirit in intimate and inspirational terms. If this is the future of globaliztion, bring it on.
-Timothy Bradford 11/29/06
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