To listen to audio on Rock Paper Scissors you'll need to Get the Flash Player

Sample Track 1:
"Balancê" from Balancê (Times Square Records)
Sample Track 2:
"Planeta Sukri (Featuring Boy Gê Mendes)" from Balancê (Times Square Records)
Buy Recording:
Balancê (Times Square Records)
Layer 2
Concert Preview

Click Here to go back.
Greenwich Village Gazette, Concert Preview >>

THE NEW VOICE
OF CAPE VERDE

Sara Tavares
Appearing at SOB's
Tuesday, June 27
204 Varick Street at West Houston
Tix: $14, advance; $17, day of show, Doors Open: 7 pm, Show: 8 pm
212.243.4940

 
Hailing from Portugal by way of Cape Verde, singer/songwriter Sara Tavares has her NYC début next week on the heels of her latest release, Balancê (Times Square Records), an album with pop sensibilities that brings to the fore the several influences from her bicultural background - both from growing up in Lisbon and having a background from her native Cape Verde.

Her voice is sweet but assured - there is little drama in the way she sings (just compare her voice to that of fado singer Ana Moura, who duets with her on "De Nua"). Her songs are both in Portuguese and Creole, which is, in the words of Cape Verdean legend Cesaria Evora , "a badly spoken form of Portuguese". She catches your attention the moment you hear the album's title track, and from then on you just sit back and savor every moment just like you would to a fine, young wine. She mixes African sounds ("Bom Feeling") with other influences. You even hear an agogô, an instrument commonly used in Brazilian samba, blended into some of the songs.

"I am very satisfied with the reception I am getting from the audience", she told me over a phone interview from Lisbon. "People are coming to the shows, and they seem to relate to the music".

She tells me that her new album is mostly an extension from her previous works. "I was going through a phase of going deeper into my family's history, and I tried to incorporate this to my music, celebrating my multicultural side, which is something that I have been coming to terms with in recent years."

"Creole is the language of my parents, and the fact that people might not completely get it doesn't really matter - it is about the music, the mix of rhythms and sounds that comes from it".

One of the most interesting tracks in the album is "One Love", a song with lyrics in English, French, Portuguese and Creole which basically says "I know that you will understand me if I express myself with love's language/I know I will understand you if from you love comes/ I know I will understand you if love comes".

"I wrote that one playfully", she says. "Everyone talks about love in their own way, and in the end we all complete each other".

She also told me she is looking forward to her New York début. During our conversation, she asked me some specifics about SOB's stage and about the club's history, and I told her of the numerous acts I've seen there (some of which she was familiar with), and she seemed satisfied with my answers. She has been here before, but coming here as a performer is a thrill.

We are excited as well. Balancê is a wonderful listening experience, and I can't wait to see how her music sounds from a live point of view.

---by Ernest Barteldes

 06/26/06 >> go there
Click Here to go back.