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Stories   >   Kavita Shah finds her own 'morna' in Cape Verdean Blues / 88.3WBGO Q&A

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Kavita Shah finds her own 'morna' in Cape Verdean Blues / 88.3WBGO Q&A

Posted: November 7, 2023

Kavita Shah is an award-winning vocalist, composer, researcher, and educator who makes work in deep engagement with the jazz tradition, while also addressing and advancing its global sensibilities. A lifelong New Yorker of Indian origin hailed for possessing an “amazing dexterity for musical languages” (NPR), Shah incorporates her ethnographic research on Brazilian, West African, and Indian musical traditions into her original repertoire. In 2023, after six years of immersing in the traditional mornas and coladeiras of her idol Cesária Évora on the Atlantic island of São Vicente, Shah will release her new album Cape Verdean Blues with Évora's former collaborators, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Bau and percussionist Miroca Paris. Recently named a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Shah is simultaneously working on a new album of original music for her jazz quintet chronicling the journey to her ancestral villages in rural Gujarat.
 

Shah’s latest album, Cape Verdean Blues, a culmination of a diasporic quest to find a spiritual home, will be released September 15, 2023 on the new global music label Folkalist Records. The carefully curated album of traditional Cape Verdean mornas and co- ladeiras is also a tribute to the charismatic and unapologetically individual Cape Verdean vocalist Cesária Évora, and a love letter to her breathtaking archipelago and its welcoming people. Resonating with the music’s language of loss, Shah, herself the daughter of immigrants, spent several years conducting ethno- graphic research on the island of São Vicente. On Cape Verdean Blues, Shah’s collaboration with Évora’s longtime bandmates (including master guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Bau), and her bold self-possession have enabled her to achieve a rare feat: creating a world music album that feels like home.

At the heart of the 12-song album is “sodade,” an idiomatic word that doesn’t have a strict English definition, but connotes a melancholy sense of transience that permeates Cape Verde, its music, and its free-spirited island population. “In this paradise in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I found a sense of home that has eluded me for much of my 37 years,” Shah says. She continues: “When I look back, I realize that upon hear- ing Cesária’s voice nearly a decade ago, she was summoning me down a path I must continue walking in search of sodade.”

Shah is a global citizen and cultural interlocutor whose work involves deep engagement with the jazz tradi- tion, while also addressing and advancing its global sensibilities. She is a lifelong New Yorker of Indian origin hailed for possessing an “amazing dexterity for musical languages” (NPR). Shah speaks 9 languages—in- cluding Portuguese and Cape Verdean Kriol—and incorporates ethnographic research into her original mu- sic. She has researched traditional music practices in Brazil, West Africa, East Africa, Turkey, and India. To support her work, Shah has earned grants from the Jerome Foundation, Chamber Music America, Asian Cultural Council, and New Music USA. Shah holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Harvard, and a Master’s in Jazz Voice from Manhattan School of Music.

88.3WBGO - Lezlie Harrison writes…..When I first hit the “play” button to have a listen to Kavita Shah’s new release, Cape Verdean Blues, I was immediately transported to that island country in Africa. Shah's vocals are simply breathtaking.  I recently spoke with Kavita about the album that pays tribute to the music of Cesária Évora, the legendary Cape Verdean singer known as the “Barefoot Diva.” Kavita captures the essence of Évora's music, reimagined with her own flair while also bringing her own unique perspective to the songs. The album is a beautiful and moving tribute to one of the greatest singers of our time. It features a collection of traditional Cape Verdean mornas and coladeiras,and she is joined by a stellar cast of musicians, including Cape Verdean guitarist Bau (Évora's former musical director) and percussionist Miroca Paris.
 

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