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Feature / Concert Preview
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East Bay Express, Feature / Concert Preview >>
A Different Diva
- By Reggie Royston
Perhaps it's fitting that Cape Verde's millen nial ambassador is herself a native of Portu gal. Lisbon-born singer Uira^has staked claim in the last two years as the new voice Mthe West African archipelago the home of her parents, of melancholic moma music, and of the "barefoot diva" Cesaria Evora, Cape Verde's answer to Odetta, who helped catapult the island's music to the world stage in the '80s. Lura's inside/other per spective is captured neatly with the title track of her second American CD Wbem di Fora (I've ComQfrom Far Away in Portuguese crioulo). The galloping zonk rhythm, accom panied by angular guitars and amazingly appropriate accordion, proyides the back ground to asong asking "What do you mean, where am I from?" The album does contain its requfsf&fshare of lamentations about fat- !ess meajs> smothered love, and crippling drought &i& for lovers of traditional morna, Lura's delivery may be a bit too upbeat, tike, bossa nova that makes you happy. It can seem schizophrenic, in fact, with woeful verses maJdfed to clappy beach soundtracks, and the juxtaposition is not solely confined to blueS-SOrigs. In what could be her version of Gloria t&tefan's "Conga" for a Brazil audi ence, the eamival song "Romarra" weaves African oral music, samba tempos, and
the island's famous squeezebox, this time In lead, into a three-minute party revel. The tracks on M'bem diFora are more in the vein of the country's upbeat funana dance music, which Lura took to soon after her first visits home, and her early wofk as a dancer with zouk singer Juka.
It's a new turn for Cape Verde music, and good one for Cape Verdeans, who have wrested their islands back from colonial disar ray to make it a favored jaunt for European surfers. While Dona vpra's fatalism and unpretentious peasant dress spoke to post- colonial turmoil, Lura is an Afropop diva for the YouTube era, and will likely sashay into Berke ley's Wheeler Auditorium Friday nightwith the sumptuous grace and famed designer wardrobe that helped earn tier two Planet awards from BBC Radio 3 in 2006. 8 p.m., $30. 04/18/07
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