Afropop Worldwide has long celebrated the proliferation of talented female singers from Cape Verde, following in the footsteps of Cesaria Évora. Topping that list is Lucibela, with her astoundingly beautiful voice and superb repertoire choices. When Lucibela burst onto the scene in 2018 with her debut album, Laço Umbilical, the world took notice, and she’s been touring to adoring audiences ever since. Now Lucibela has dropped her third album, Moda Antiga, and it may be her best yet, a flawless set of eleven songs that has been on steady rotation at Afropop for months since it was released in Europe last year. As the American release arrives this week, Afropop’s Banning Eyre reached Lucibela in Lisbon to talk about the album. Here’s their conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
Banning Eyre: Lucibela, it’s lovely to speak with you again. We met at Womex some years ago, and I’ve seen you since in Boston and New York. I have to say that this new album is terrific. It’s one of the nicest things I’ve heard in a long time.
Lucibela: Thank you very much.
So to start, just give me a little update on where things are with you now, and tell me the story of this album, Moda Antiga.
The name of Moda Antiga, it’s like an ancient custom, you know. This album is to celebrate Cape Verdean music, heritage. This album is to keep the essence of our culture alive and contribute to the appreciation and preservation of these traditional songs from Cape Verde, because I love so much the traditional music and I want to contribute to its preservation.
My computer translates the title as “old fashion,” but I like ancient custom better! Did you record this in Lisbon?
No. I recorded this album in Cape Verde on São Vicente Island, in the studio of José da Silva made there.
[José da Silva is the head of Lusafrica, the Lisbon-based label that releases much of the Cape Verdean music known to the world, beginning with Cesaria Évora.]
Ah, José has a studio there now. That’s great. Well, it’s really beautifully recorded.
Yeah, and the musicians I played with on this album, they’re almost all Cape Verdeans too. My musical producer, Toy Vieira, lives in São Vicente. He was my music producer for the two albums before too.
Right. So this is your third.
Yes, this is the third. And Toy Vieira is my musical director too.
Well, clearly you two are very good together. I have been to Mindelo in São Vicente and I met with Luis Baptista, the brother of the great maestro Bau. I visited Luis’s studio where he makes instruments and went to one of his local gigs. There’s a really wonderful musical community there, isn’t there?
Yes, that’s true. And Bau plays on this album too, on many songs. We had most of the good musicians in Cape Verde. So for this traditional work, it’s very nice to work with Bau and these other musicians.
I’m not surprised. The album has such a rich sonic soundscape. I also particularly like the compositions you chose. Such strong melodies! Let’s go through them, starting with the first one, “Nhó Jom Seá Mi No/ Ta Pinga Txápu – Txápu.”
OK. This is actually two songs, two old songs from Cape Verde. Cape Verdean people know these songs. So I recorded the with a new look and stance. So “Nhó Jom Seá Mi No“ is a popular songs from Cape Verde. We don’t have a composer. And the second song is from Anu Nobu. He’s is a very famous compositor in Santiago. He’s dead now, but he’s famous for his songs.
Can you tell me what those two titles mean? How they translate?
It’s complicated because my English is not good, but I can say the songs tell old stories from Cape Verde. They talk about the people.
Okay. I’m sorry to test the limits of your English. You’re doing very well, though. Let’s talk about “Bruxa.”
“Bruxa” is a song by Manuel de Novas, also a very famous composer from Cape Verde. Cesaria recorded a lot of his songs. This song talks about an intrigue between two people. Bruxa means “witch.” So in the song, this woman talks too much about the life of this man. And the man calls her a witch. “Don’t talk about me. I want to live my life in peace.”
Hmm. A tough message, but another beautiful melody. Then we have “Salabanku,” which is a slower song after you really kick it out on those first two.
That’s true. “Salabancu” is from Elida Almeida. I think you know Elida Almeida.
Yes. We just saw her in New York. I spoke with Elida a few weeks ago. She mentioned that she likes writing for you.
I love the songs of Elida Almeida. And this song talks about the first love, the pain you feel when the first love is not right, you know? That’s “Salabancu.”
And then we have a nice coladeira. I think is the right way to describe “Lembra Tempo,” right?
Yes, “Lembre Tempu” is a coladeira. I wrote this song. I don’t write a lot of songs, but sometimes I do. “Lembre Tempu” speaks about the past when people in Cape Verde danced to the sound of morna and coladeira. There were dances and people would be dancing all the night while the band played. I have listened to lot of stories about these parties when the band played and people danced to our traditional music. These days, we don’t do this anymore.
So I wrote this song to tell our people: maybe we can do this together in our time. But I don’t know. People now are mostly interested in other songs, kizomba or pop, you know? So this song is an invitation for the people to dance more with our traditional music.
Well, this would make me dance. It’s such a lively, engaging rhythm. The next song, “Diferença” features a unison melody with the violin and the clarinet playing together. Another great melody.
Yeah. Thank you. “Diferença” is a composition by Toy Vieira, and it talks about how you have to be yourself. You have to do what you love. You don’t have to be another person.
Then you have “Mcorre Mka Mega,” which sounds to me a bit like rumba.
Well, this is not a coladeira, not a morna. It’s a baiao. The composer is Mario Lucio. It talks about a man running after a woman. And this woman doesn’t want anything to do with this man. The man is trying to stay with this woman, but she doesn’t want him.
A familiar story. Then we come to “Yemanjá,” the Yoruba water deity, right? The track starts out with the sound of water.
That’s true. The composer is Elida Almeida again. Yemanjá is the queen of the sea. In Africa she is a deity of fresh water, worshipped on the banks of a river. But in Brazil, the cult was transferred to the sea, since rivers and waterfalls flow into the ocean. But Yemanjá, in the beginning, was in Africa, and then afterwards in Brazil.
Yes, I have known of Yemanjá in Cuba and in Brazil and originally Nigeria, coming out of Yoruba religion. But that’s interesting that it changed from freshwater to saltwater. I didn’t know that.
And the song talks about a fisherman who goes out to fish, but it’s a bad day on the sea. So this man is praying to Yemanjá. Because the sea is so rough, he needs Yemanja to help him to go back, to find his way home.
Beautiful. And now at last, we get to a morna, “Julgamento de Mãe.”
Yes, that’s it. The composer is Tututa Évora. She is the most famous pianist, a woman pianist, in Cape Verde. She is dead now too. So this song talks about a mother, a mother who didn’t grow up with her son.
Okay. The title translates “A Mother’s Trial.” A sad song, hence a morna.
Yes. A morna is a slow song, and coladeira is for dancing. So this is an older song. On my album I have five old songs and six new songs.
And the next one, “Baloi,” is also a morna, right?
It’s also a morna. The composer is Manuel de Novas, like “Bruxa.” And this song also talks about a mother, who does everything for her kids. She works to bring money home so the kids have food. And she’s giving them advice too. She does anything for her kids. That’s it.
Now on this next song, “Mãe Gracinda,” you have a guest vocalist. Someone is singing with you there. This is quite a funky song, not like anything else on the album. Who’s singing with you?
That’s Fabio Ramos. He’s a new singer in Cape Verde. And he has also recorded with José da Silva. And Katia Semedo is singing too. This is not traditional Cape Verdean music. It’s from Angola. It’s a semba. We wrote this song in Angola when we were singing at a party for this old woman, Mãi Gracinda. That’s Mother Gracinda. She is a very nice woman who does a lot for people in Angola. She helps everybody. So we played for her birthday, and later in the hotel, we wrote this song, me, Fabio and Katia Smith.
And finally, we have “Djentis Dasagua,” another one with an interesting rhythm that I want you to tell me about.
Okay. This is an old song too, and the composer is Zezé Di Nha Reinalda. It’s about agriculture in Cape Verde. When it doesn’t rain, the people don’t have a good year. And then people try to immigrate to Europe, to the United States. They go for a better life. The agriculture in Cape Verde is not always good. We have a lot of problems with rain, so people migrate.
Right. I understand. It’s a dry and unpredictable climate. What is the rhythm on this one? I don’t recognize it.
It’s a funaná, but not a typical funaná. It’s a funaná lenta, a slow funaná, you know?
Okay. It’ s not the percussion-heavy funaná of the group Ferro Gaita. I like the rhythm. The way I count it, it’s in four-four time, but the accents are on beats three and four. It’s a nice groove. Well, thank you for this tour of the album. Let me ask you this. When you are putting together an album, working with a lot of different composers, you probably have a lot of songs to choose among. I imagine that composers bring you their songs and want you to record them. How do you make your choices?
Normally I listen to lot of old songs because I love the old songs from Cape Verde and I know that many people don’t know the songs. So my job is to listen to old songs and see what songs I like. I choose 10 or 15 songs, and then I work with my guitarists, like Bau. I sing the songs, and later, I listen to the recordings. Me and José, we listen to the songs and we decide, “That’s it. That’s a song for this new album.”
And with the composers, it’s the same. Manel de Novas, Anu Novo and her son have a lot of songs. I like to record songs by Manel de Novas or Anu Novo. They send me the music and I choose what I like most. The same with Elida Almeida and Mario Lucio. Toy Vieira works with me to arrange the songs. I told him to write his beautiful song “Diferença” for me.
Well, you certainly chose very well this time. You were mentioning before that a lot of young Cape Verdeans are gravitating towards more modern music, whether it’s kizomba, Afrobeats or other foreign sounds. I am sure there’s lots of competition. But is there a young audience that also follows artists like you and Elida who are more sticking with traditional sounds?
Yes, but not too much. The young people want to sing pop and kizomba. We have new singers. I think most of them are women.
Yes. We’ve noticed!
They don’t all get to sing in Europe because. I think we have beautiful voices in Cape Verde, but this market is difficult. José da Silva can’t record every artist in Cape Verde.
Of course. Not even all the good ones. I remember speaking with Fatou Diakité and her telling me what a thrill it was to get the attention of José. It’s every traditional singer’s dream in Cape Verde, right?
Yes, we have good voices in Cape Verde. We have had a lot of chances to sing in the world. It was good, but I don’t think so much now. Now the world is stranger. It’s changed. People are not so interesting in the traditional songs. We have an audience who like these songs, but this is not the general public. It’s mostly the older people. I think you can do your job in Cape Verde, you can do your job on the internet and people listen to you. But I think the best way is to do concerts, do shows, you know? This is how people will know you and listen to you. For me, I think it’s the best because on the internet, I don’t have much chance to compete with the new generation, because young people don’t want this type of song.
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That’s too bad. So it seems your biggest audience is abroad, playing for the diaspora, and folks like us who love traditional music. I imagine you’re planning to do some touring with the new album this year. Will you be coming over to the United States?
This year I don’t have anything in the United States. We are going to do some concerts with the Cesaria Évora Orchestra.
I’ve seen the orchestra group in New York a few years ago with Nancy Vieira, Jenifer Soledad. I’m sure that will be a great experience. Well, we do look forward to seeing you again over here because I’d love to see you performing these new songs. You know, our show has been on the air since 1988, more than 35 years. So a lot of our listeners are older and more attracted to music like yours than to all these newer sounds. But, of course, it’s a new generation, There has to be room for everything, right? How do you feel about this new music that’s coming out now?
I like it, because I’m young too. I want people to listen more to our traditional music, but the world has space for all the songs and all types of music. So I don’t know. I think we have more to learn about traditional music, not just from Cape Verde, from all the countries, you know? We have a young culture now, and some good songs. But will these songs play all your life? This new song is just a moment. It’s just for dancing. These songs go away, fast, fast.
I think the culture is being lost all over the world because people don’t care. They just want to party. So I feel sad at the same time. But we live, and yes, I like the new songs. I live in the moment with these songs, but they are not the songs I listen in my house every day. Because we don’t have a real cultural essence in these songs.
Yes. I get that. The kinds of songs that you are singing have already lasted. They have stood the test of time. As for the new music? Maybe some of it will last and still be heard 10, 20 years from now, but a lot of it won’t. Like you say, it’s of the moment. I guess only time will tell. But I applaud you for being part of keeping the old music alive, because it’s great. It has already proven that it will last. Even if it’s not the most popular, it’s strong.
That’s true. That’s true. And the words of the songs are also important. The message in the new songs is mostly just to party.
Right. Lovey dovey and partying. But you say you like some of the new music. Do you have any favorites? Are there any that you particularly enjoy?
I like to listen to everybody. But it’s the old songs I love most, the artists I learned with, like Elton John.
Elton John. Interesting. I’m also a big Elton John fan.
And I like Whitney Houston. I like a lot of Brazilian music too. I grew up listening to Brazilian music, samba and bossa nova. So I have a lot of artists. I respect all music and all the artists. I think in the world we have space for all this music.
Amen to that. Thanks so much for speaking with me.
Thank you.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
