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Teofilo Chantre is the star of a new generation of Cape Verde musicians - the talented singer, guitarist and composer of intoxicating tunes that ooze with dreamy nostalgia and the gentle wash of the sea. Born in 1964 on the island of Sao Nicolau, Teofilo came to France at the age of 13 and began teaching himself to play the guitar and to write his own music. At 17 he discovered traditional music through his joint African and Portuguese background and started to play in local-community festivals. In 1991 the producer Jose da Silva accepted three of his songs for Cesaria Evora's biggest hit album "Miss Perfumado". In 1995 Cesaria again chose one of his songs for Emir Kusturica's film "Underground". Teofilo's schedule has been getting ever busier and he moves easily between Cape Verde restaurants in Paris and prestigious international venues. He is due to sing at the Olympia later this year as supporting artist for Cesaria Evora and later for the Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzales. Teofilo's work strikes new ground in the tradition of Cape Verde music with his bitter-sweet mornas sung in an up-beat way, his livelier and often more satirical coladeiras, without forgetting his nostalgic waltzes and mazurkas also sung in the Portuguese Creole of Cap-Verde called "kriolu". They all express the same "sodade", that untranslatable poetic feeling that tells of "a huge love that smothers this little country", a dreamlike vision of the archipelago that is also the Eden of his childhood. Teofilo adds Brazilian influences to his music as well as drawing on the rich sounds of jazz. His voice tantalizes with its velvet tones, and his melodies drift over the listener like a gentle summer breeze, carried by supple and generous rhythms, stirring a lazy desire to dance. |
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