-By Kevin L. Carter


Only in Cape Verde could the mazurka, a Polish song form appropriated by the French and dispersed around the world by Martiniquians, find itself a proper place within the Crioulu cultural stew and active musical laboratory of this West African island archipelago.

When Lura, the sensuous Cape Verdean vocalist, danced joyfully across the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater stage Wednesday night, you could see Africa personified in her movements and in her smile. But as any Cape Verdean will tell you, while African roots are strong in Cape Verde, they are not the whole story. With Lura, as with Cape Verdean pioneer Cesaria Evora, the songs are full of Portuguese chordal and emotional underpinnings.

Lura, born Maria de Lurdes Pina Assungao in Lisbon 30 years ago, fronted a crack six-piece ensemble and ran briskly through the gamut of Cape Verdean rhythms - mazurka, coladeira, batuku, funana and morna.

Singing to a multicultural crowd that included a large Cape Verdean contingent, Lura used her voice to good effect, markedly on "Ponciana," from her new album, Mtem di fora {I've Come from Far Away). Lura is a compact woman with a voice powerful and metallic in the high register, more tender and sweet in the lower.

Lura's band gave her music an international-pop sheen. Bandleader Toy Vieira eschewed much of Cape Verdean music's honkytonk piano for a harder-edged jazz style that drew from Cuban traditions. Percussionist Paulino Pina, who plays under the more Brazilian-sounding name Jair, brought the in-your-face attitude of Santiago, culturally the most African of the islands, to his conga playing.

On "Na Ri Na" and "Vazulina," Lura became percussionist as well, playing a metallic scraper that is more Central than West African. She also used a small cloth box, a tchabeta, that served both as drum and homage to generations of Cape Verdean women who made music as they worked.