Kachupada

With Verdade, her 2010 release, Carmen Souza introduced herself to the world as a kind of Cape Verdean Diana Krall. On Kachupada she is transformed into Cape Verdean Esperanza Spalding. Songs such as the opener ‘Manhã de Dezembro, ‘Terra Sab, ‘Xinxiroti’ and ‘Novo Dia’ are the music equivalent of Heston Blumenthalstyle molecular gastronomy. Souza and her long-term collaborator Theo Pas'cal (the virtuoso Portuguese bassist) distil the raw flavours of Cape Verdean music, transforming them with the chemistry of modern jazz harmony and rhythms, and the experimentalism of the Brazilian avant– garde before serving them up as something altogether new and startling.

On ‘Ivanira,’ Souza plays with funana, mixing it with Carmen Miranda-era samba, singing it like an African Björk and pausing for a McCoy Tyner jazz piano instrumental break. On ‘6 on na Tarrafal’ she's tender, sweet, filled with saudades and accompanied only by mournful acoustic guitar and upright bass. Kachupada is a brave, extraordinarily original and at times challenging album. It is profoundly musical, deepens on every listen and deserves to make Souza a far more familiar name.