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
CD Review

Click Here to go back.
Salinas Californian, CD Review >>

"You don't need a weather vane to know which way the wind blows," Bob Dylan wrote. And you don't need to speak Portuguese to appreciate the music of Sara Tavares.

The exciting young singer/songwriter from Lisbon, Portugal, will appear in concert Oct. 20 at Monterey Live.

When I first heard her CD, "Balance," I thought she was from Brazil; the language and the rhythms are similar.

I then remembered I had read that she is African and lives in Lisbon.

Her publicity says she has found the voice of a new generation of Africans living in that city.

In an interview with Rock Paper Scissors (www.rockpaperscissors.biz), the 27-year-old singer says:

"Our generation feels very lost because there is no culture specifically for us, that talks about our reality."

Her art is definitely a worldly mix.

Tavares says she and her friends represent a metisse culture. They speak Portuguese slang, Angolan slang, words in Cape Verdean Crioulo, which includes English and French words.

Abandoned by her parents and raised by an older Portuguese woman, Tavares found a place for herself in the world with the help of African musicians in Lisbon and in Cape Verde.

She has a rich, luscious voice that soothes and raises the spirit.

If I had to compare her to another artist, Sade would come closest. But comparing Tavares to anyone detracts from her uniqueness.

Though I don't speak Portuguese, I am moved by her singing.

Of her album, "Balance" (pronounced bal-on-SAY), she says: "The whole album is like little lullabies to myself. All the messages are about self-esteem, loving yourself. About liking what is different in you. About integrating parts of you."

Among her songs are "Bom Feeling" (Good Feeling), "Planet Sukri" (Sugar Planet), "Muna Xeia" (Full Moon), and "Poka Terra."

She describes her ballads as "very much like little prayers."

Her U.S. tour will take her from Maine to San Diego, and Monterey is lucky to have booked her.

On her art, she comments:

"I want to be a part of a movement like the African Americans were, like the African Brazilians were. Instead of doing the music of their ancestors, they have created this musical identity of their own. And it is now respected. It is considered whole and authentic and genuine. It will be a long time before the people from my generation do not have to choose between being African or European. I think you shouldn't have to choose. You should just be there. Celebrate that. Be that!"

By:  Tom Leyde

 10/24/07 >> go there
Click Here to go back.