Carmen Souza was born in Lisbon within a family of Cape Verdeans. Very young, she experienced the “Sodade” feeling of missing someone with the long absence of her father due to his work at sea. She grew up in a mixed environment of Creole, the Cape Verde dialect her parents spoke at home, and Portuguese, always surrounded by the Cape Verdean way of life.
Carmen started singing professionally at the age of 17 in a Lusophone Gospel Choir named Shout and since then she participated in several projects from Funky to Soul, Jazz and World music, with whom she toured extensively. Her compositions were also included in albums released by projects in where she participated has singer. Being a strong spiritual person, Carmen always saw music has her mission and felt a privilege to have the opportunity to express herself through it, working hard every day to deserve that opportunity.
Musicians like Luis Morais, Theo Pas’cal, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, etc., are definitely the ones that truly inspire her evolution and search for a personal style different from anything you ever heard. Theo Pas’cal, her producer and mentor and one of the best bass players in Portugal, was the one to discover her talent and introduce Carmen to Jazz, Fusion, and other contemporary sounds that really influenced her.
In 2003, together with Theo, Carmen started working in the compositions that would be included in her debut album Ess e nha Cabo Verde. Carmen wanted to create a new and unique sound in her ancestors’ dialect, Creole, that would mix traditional African and Cape Verde rhythms like Batuke, Morna, Cola djon, and others, with her jazz/soul contemporary influences. The goal was to do it in a totally intimate and acoustic vibe, different from the traditional festive environment of Cape Verdean sounds.
Ess e nha Cabo Verde, released in 2005, received great reviews from the Cape Verde press not only in Cape Verde but also in the USA and was considered by the critics as a reflection of Cape Verde music evolution. The album made it to playlists internationally and was also distributed in several countries.
Carmen’s international live debut happened in July 2005 during the mythic Womad Festival in Reading, UK by the hand of BBC3 on their “World on your street stage.
On Verdade her second album, released in 2008, Carmen Souza performed in Creole. She retund in 2010 with the impressive Protegid (Protected) that elegantly combined African and Cape Verdean traditional rhythms with Contemporary Jazz and Afro-Latin music composed by Carmen Souza and Theo Pas’cal.
In 2022, she released the album Interconnectedness, a recording about human interconnections.
Discography:
Ess e nha Cabo Verde
Protegid (Galileo Music, 2010)
Verdade (Galileo Music, 2010)
London Acoustic Set (Galileo Music, 2011)
Kachupada (Galileo Music, 2012)
Live At Lagny Jazz Festival (Galileo Music, 2013)
Epistola (Galileo Music, 2015)
Creology (Galileo Music, 2017)
The Silver Messengers (Galileo Music Communication, 2019)
Interconnectedness (Galileo Music Communication, 2022)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.