Port’Inglês

The tricky part about coming up with and cementing an aesthetic of your own is avoiding being cornered or imprisoned by it. That has been the greatest challenge for Carmen Souza, since she got together with Theo Pascal, and they developed this well-balanced fusion between Cape Verdean traditional styles (including morna and coladeira) and jazz. Souza’s 11th album contains this musical formula, but it is amazingly accomplished, fresh and exciting, as if it were a newfound revelation. Cape Verdean rhythms such as funaná, contradança and morna are just as fundamental to Port’Inglês as jazz is, but Souza also summons up a bit of British folk music to address the relationship between Cape Verde and the UK that spreads from her Master’s thesis to the album, exploring cultural identity, colonialism and resistance. She digs irresistibly into simple and striking songs such as the swinging ‘Pamodi’, the morna-based ‘Cais d’Port Inglês’, the folky tale of Francis Drake in ‘Francis Drum’ and the ballad ‘Moringue’. Some artistic ideas never grow old.