CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Sara Tavares

Zankel Hall
Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:30 PM

Sara Tavares, Vocals and Guitar
Ivo Costa, Drums
Luis Caracol, Bass
Jon Luz, Ukulele and Guitar
Juca Monteiro, Percussion

Program is approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes, and will be performed without intermission

Presented by Carnegie Hall in partnership with World Music Institute.

Program Notes:

INTRODUCTION

It has been said that music is a universal language. Yet one would be hard-pressed to find the connection between, say, Congolese soukous and Korean sanjo, or between a Javanese gamelan orchestra and a Cuban rumba band. Nevertheless there are threads of similarity throughout many of the popular musical idioms of the world.

Western pop, rock, and jazz have had a profound influence on traditional musical genres of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe over the past 50 years. At the same time, musical instruments, rhythms, and melodic systems from other cultures have become increasingly common in Western popular music. Much of this cross-fertilization has inevitably led to a bland, homogenized type of popular music that is sometimes erroneously referred to as "world music."

Yet there are examples of cross-cultural synthesis that have had a profound effect on popular music around the world. The African continent has been not only a rich source of material for Western composers and musicians, but has given birth to its own potent and highly varied genre. The infectious rhythms and undulating guitar licks of Afro-pop have revitalized popular music throughout the world. Similarly, the Iberian peninsula has brought new energy to the world-music stage. Of particular importance has been the music of Portugal and the Portuguese diaspora. The Atlantic islands of Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa have proved particularly rich in bringing us new sounds, new rhythms, and new voices. Ever since Cesária Évora hit the international stage in the early 1990s, a plethora of young singers has come from these islands and placed Cape Verdean music squarely on the world-music map.

Cape Verdean music reflects the African-European mix of its population. It is a blend of European waltzes and contra dances with rhythms from Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean. While Cesária is best known for her renditions of traditional mornas—songs of sadness, sorrow, and yearning that are akin to fado—there are a number of other traditional song and dance forms that are more African in their rhythmic complexity. Such are the coladeira—a lively, often humorous or satirical song—and the accordion-led funana, both of which are very popular dance forms associated with highly erotic movement. More recently, Cape Verdean artists have been drawing on funky Afro-pop and Brazilian rhythms, creating new forms that draw on a variety of outside sources. It should be noted that while the Cape Verdean community numbers more than one million, less than one-third live on the islands. The remainder are scattered throughout the US, Portugal, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, most forced to emigrate due to the harshness of life on the islands and lack of employment opportunities.

While her parents were both born in Cape Verde, Sara Tavares did not grow up on the islands, but instead in the burgeoning African community of Lisbon. Thus from the start she took a more cosmopolitan route than some of her compatriots. Her music draws on her life experience, ranging from her early attraction to soul and gospel, through a return to her Cape Verdean roots and the African rhythms of the Afro-Portuguese diaspora. Sara’s most recent repertoire is more introspective; while maintaining irresistible dance rhythms, her songs are light and airy, often injected with philosophical subtexts. Themes of love, passion, and inner conflict are juxtaposed with intricate guitar licks and funky rhythms.

—Robert H. Browning, World Music Institute

More Information:

On her albums, this Cape Verdean singer-songwriter from Portugal is enticing, to say the least. But live she’s irresistible. “Her voice can caress phrases with the breathy ease of a Brazilian pop singer or take on a sharper African edge,” says the New York Times.

Sara Tavares, Vocals and Guitar
Ivo Costa, Drums
Luis Caracol, Bass
Jon Luz, Ukulele and Guitar
Juca Monteiro, Percussion
THE ARTIST

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 people—the people from my generation—do not have to choose between being African or European. I think you shouldn’t have to choose.

—Sara Tavares


Sara Tavares is a leading representative of the new generation of Cape Verdean singers who emerged in the wake of Cesária Évora's transglobal success. Born off the islands, she is part of the generation whose parents migrated from the bleak Atlantic islands off the coast of Senegal, to Portugal in search of work.

As a teenager, Tavares founded the first Portuguese gospel choir in Lisbon and decided music was to be her destiny. Her favorite singers of the day were Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Donnie Hathaway. In 1994, she won a national TV competition, and entered the Eurovision Song Contest. From there, a contract with BMG records brought Tavares’s band its self-titled debut, Sara Tavares and Shout.

During the immediate years that followed, the singer was drawn from gospel and pop music into Lisbon's burgeoning African and Cape Verdean music scenes. Her 1999 debut solo album, Mi Ma Bô (finally released in the US last year as part of a two–CD/DVD collection Alive in Lisboa on Times Square) was still rooted in R&B, but its producer, Paris-based African artist and producer Lokua Kanza, helped Tavares find an upbeat Afro-pop mix. It earned her a gold disc in Portugal and a nomination for the Portuguese equivalent to a Grammy (Globos de Oero) for Best Artist / New Album.

Her second album, Balancê (also on Times Square), for which Tavares composed all the songs, was her international launch pad; the promotional tour took her through Europe, Japan, and the US. The focus of her songs had shifted entirely to Cape Verdean and African music; the songs were sung in Portuguese, Cape Verdean creole, and local street slang, moving towards rhythms rooted in the islands and the African diaspora. Her new album Xinti (pronounced ZHIN-tee), on 4Q Records, echoes the singer's inner journey.


World Music Institute (WMI) is celebrating its 25th anniversary season. Since its founding in 1985, WMI has built the most comprehensive concert series of world music and dance in the nation, presenting more than 1,400 ensembles and soloists from over 100 countries and regions. In addition to its concert series in New York, WMI organizes several national tours each year, and maintains an extensive catalog of recordings, videos, and books of traditional music available at our office or online. Visit worldmusicinstitute.org for more information.