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Boston Herald, Feature >>
Tcheka incorporates rhythms of Capo Vordo lifo in his songs
- By Bob Young
Cape Verdean rising star Tcheka understands full well the impact women have had on the music and culture of his African island nation.
The legendary Cesaria Evora, whom he calls "the mother of us all," is Cape Verde's unofficial global ambassador. Now a new generation of female vocalists that includes Lura, Maria de Barros, Fantcha and Sara Tavares is carrying the torch and spreading its own Evora-influenced sound even further.
Yet, when he opens for Evora tonight at Berklee Performance Center, 33-year-old singer and guitarist Tcheka will have a different group of women to thank. He won't draw on Evora's melancholy morna style but on a traditional sound created hundreds of years ago by Cape Verdean women whose goal was communicating with each other after a hard day in the fields.
The sound, batuque, is an upbeat style with percolating rhythms that Tcheka heard growing up on the Cape Verde island of Santiago, which is in the Atlantic off the coast of Senegal. Women sitting in a circle would pat out a variety of rhythms on drumlike bundles of tightly folded plastic bags, which have replaced the cloth bundles of their ancestors.
Those batuque rhythms have an even stronger African tinge to them than the morna that Evora and her disciples have made famous.
"In the times of the slave trade, (Santiago) was an island where the slaves first stopped on their way to America," Tcheka said through a translator from a tour stop in Chicago. "So Santiago received the most African influence
of the Cape Verdean islands. That influences my style."
Tcheka is intent on using those rhythms, and other African beats such as tabanca, to tell new stories for the modern world. Two of his songs have been recorded by Portugal-based singer Lura. His new CD, "Nu Monda," keeps the
tradition of social commentary alive with songs about love, family and the difficulties of fishing and farming in a country that's not the most hospitable for either.
His new approach to an old style has been winning him acclaim. Tcheka was named artist of the year at the 2005 Radio Erance International Music of the World Awards.
"I feel that I need to carry a message out about Cape Verdean culture," he said. "And I really want those messages to be heard by younger generations." 06/23/07
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