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CD Review
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muzikifan, CD Review >>
Tcheka is a Cape Verdean guitarist and singer with a strong, individual sound. He has Jesus on his side, but we will let that slide for now. After a brief opening ballad he unleashes some bright rhythms to show off his chops on the acoustic guitar. The lad can play. In fact he wrote the opening and closing cuts of the latest Lura album but has now launched his solo career with a dozen of his own compositions. Suddenly we are all expert in traditional rhythms of Cabo Verde, like the batuque for example. Just last month in Berkeley we saw Lura take her pad of folded cloth between her knees and beat on it with her hands. This was the women's response to the ban on drums (by both the Catholic church and the Portuguese colonists) and Tcheka grew up on the island of Santiago hearing his dad, a violinist, playing these rhythms. He has adapted them to modern instruments but we are still held by the ancient feeling, poised on the air like a hawk somewhere between Angola, Brasil and Coimbra. Neither European, African, nor New World in its sensibility but something unique. We can connect Cesaria Evora's morna style to Portuguese fado with a hint of Brasilian medinha, but Tcheka has something palpably different. "Kre ka nha" reminded me of Lenine, the talented Brasilian singer/songwriter. NU MONDA was recorded in Paris so it could be this kid from the islands has a bigger CD collection than we are led to believe. He was born on the eve of independence (1975) but has learned his history. "Rozadi Rezadu" is about the famine of 1947 when even prayers to St Anthony went unanswered: the cattle died and families fled to Angola. Saint Anthony, an impoverished saint who spurned worldly goods and held out for higher things, is big in Portugal and subsequently in their old empire. You can feel Tcheka reaching for higher things in his music. This is a very accomplished album, brilliantly executed. 06/01/07 >> go there
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