NANCY VIEIRA: Gente

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Nancy Vieira’s voice has been heard on practically every continent and in every corner of the world where this has happened, one thing has invariably happened: people fall into reverent silence every time her clear, direct voice tells us about the stories, dreams and desires, pains and joys of the people of the Cape Verde islands. Nancy’s voice encompasses a country and the world that the diaspora has opened up.

GENTE (PEOPLE), her new album, follows on from Manhã Florida, which dates back to 2018, and reflects a remarkable artistic ambition. Firstly because it is a work that was conceived slowly, thought out, discussed and meticulously planned. And the title, in fact, already reveals everything you need to know: it’s a work of encounters, stories, ideas, balance sheets, but above all, of people.

Produced by Amélia Muge, A. José Martins and Nancy Vieira herself, GENTE was recorded in Lisbon between the historic Namouche studio and CervantesEstúdio by Jorge Cervantes, the Peruvian musician who plays on the album as well as providing some of the arrangements. This world, which Nancy Vieira knows so well because she has travelled through it on stage, also features on this album: Lisbon, the city in which Nancy studied and has lived for a long time, is very much present – it is, after all, the working base for the team of producers and several of the musicians, such as percussionist Iuri Oliveira, a sophisticated driving force behind so much great music that has been released in recent years; Mário Lúcio and Vaiss Dias are living treasures of Cape Verdean music who play the string instruments, including the bass; from the Basque Country comes Olmo Marin, who is also a master of chordophones; from Brazil come accordionist Luciano Maia and Gustavo Nunes; and from Ukraine comes violinist Denys Stetsenko. A world of many PEOPLE, indeed.

The music you hear in GENTE also has strong authorship: the renowned Mário Lúcio signs four of the themes, but there are songs born from the feathers of Remna Schwarz, Luís Firmino from Acácia Maior, the great and historic B.Leza, Ano Nobo, José M. Neves and Kaku Alves, Adalberto S. Betú. Alexandre Lenos with Fred Martins, Luís Lima and Vaiss, Teofilo Chantre and, of course, Amélia Muge. In other words, songs that come from the deep tradition and memory made in Cape Verde, but which also come from the minds of people from other generations and countries, and which are consolidated by a new generation that is already projecting the soul of these islands into the future.

The arrangements, full of subtleties, rich in swings and harmonies, reflect the visions of Jorge Cervantes, the Acácia Maior of Luís Firmino and Henrique Silva, fundamental names of Cape Verde’s new generation, the lisboetas Fogo Fogo who have raised the flag of the new funaná high or the experienced Mário Lúcio. And there are also other guests who reflect this multiplicity of experiences and intersections in Nancy’s life: António Zambujo who joins his voice to Nancy’s in the beautiful “Fado Criolo”, a song in which you can also hear the spoken cadence of Chullage and the acoustic guitar of Fred Martins, or Miroca Paris who paints “Dia Funçon” with percussions.

There are many people on this GENTE, an album that avoids the easy path of technological touches of “modernity” and prefers, in its apparent formal traditionalism, to promote the particular magic that only happens when people from different walks of life meet in the same space to share, play and sing their different stories. There’s a lot of Cape Verde in this disc, or Nancy wouldn’t have so often been referred to as the heir to Cesária Évora, one of her strongest muses. But on GENTE there is also that world that only exists in the streets of Lisbon and where you can hear the nuances of Brazil, echoes of so many other Africas and many Europes and Americas. There’s morna and samba, fado and batuque, jazz-tinged sophistication and pop-minded adventure. There are PEOPLE. There is life. This is an album made now with tomorrow in mind. Yesterday only matters because it’s what brought us all here. To this album and this music.

 

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Press

“Cape Verdeanness hasn’t changed, it’s just become even brighter”,  Nuno Pacheco, Público (PT)

“Nancy Vieira is not just a beautiful singer. She’s a singer that anyone interested in contemporary music should pay attention to”,  Songlines (UK)

“…a celebration of humanity, a mosaic of stories and sounds that resonate with listeners all over the world (…) an outstanding work in the world music genre.’”, All About Vocals

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