WOMAD

Teofilo Chantre

From Cape Verde

Biography by Andy Morgan, July 2003:Before Cesaria Evora released ‘Miss Perfumado’ in 1992, Cape Verde was just a melancholy group of islands hidden from the world by the salty Atlantic surf. The barefoot diva’s misty blue vocals put the archipelago on the musical map, but the huge success of the album was also due to the sad enveloping brilliance of the songs. Teofilo Chantre wrote three of them. Soon afterwards he penned the lyrics for the ‘Ausencia’, a song written by star Balkan composer Goran Bregovic, which Evora sang for the soundtrack of Emir Kusturica’s acclaimed epic ‘Underground’. Chantre is the champion of a particular kind of Cap Verdian sound; gentle, soulful, hovering between the velvet lilt of Brazilian bossa nova and the down-home jaunt of Cuban charanga and liberally doused in the deep blue vapour of saudade, that unquantifiable, world weary and yet life affirming emotion that permeates most of the sounds that come from the islands. His three albums for the prolific lusophone label Lusafrica have turned him into a star, whose attraction is felt way beyond the confines of the various ex-pat Cap Verdian communities in countries like Holland, Portugal and the USA. On his latest CD ‘Rodatempo’ he performs the slow mornas and slightly faster coladeros that form the main part of Cap Verde’s super-rich musical treasury, using his favourite line-up of guitar, violin, piano and cavaquinho, a small mandolin-like Cap Verdian guitar, and records with musicians who have been at the vanguard of the Cap Verde revival, guitarist Bau, bass player José Paris and composer Amandio Cabral, as well as his own father, Vitorino Chantre. Some have called Teofilo Chantre’s music sophisticated but it’s nothing more than soulful and beautiful.2002: (for English text see below)Tras componer tres canciones en 1992 para Miss Perfumado, el disco que encumbró a Cesaria Évora, Teofilo Chantre se convirtió en uno de los compositores favoritos de la diva caboverdiana. Con su carrera en solitario, Teofilo Chantre ha enriquecido su repertorio, ha expandido su estilo vocal y musical y prueba ser un inspirado creados de melodías, fiel a la instrumentación (guitarra, cavaquinho, violín, piano) y a las formas tradicionales de la coladera o la morna, canciones caboverdianas con las que bailar o llorar.En Rodatempo, su último disco a medio camino entre los ritmos caboverdianos, el jazz y la bossa nova, Teofilo celebra la saudade, las memorias colectivas de lucha contra las contrariedades de la vida, infancia, juventud y pasiones felices o desgarradoras.Biography supplied by artist management, March 2002:1992, in Cesaria Evora's wake, Teofilo Chantre emerged. He became one of Cesaria's favorite composers, after he had written 3 songs for the album "Miss Perfumado", the most famous album of the Cape Verde Diva. Then, he wrote the lyrics of the song "Ausencia" that she recorded for the soundtrack of Emir Kusturica's movie "Underground" on a theme, in the gipsy style, by Goran Bregovic who is the usual composer of the Bosnian director.Today, "Rodatempo", his third album, is released in the continuation of his two previous CDs, "Terra & Cretcheu" and "Di Alma": between traditional Capeverdean rythms, jazz and bossa nova, Teofilo Chantre enriched his repertory and expanded his vocal and musical style. Thanks to the numerous concerts that followed the release of his previous albums, Teofilo has strenghtened his husky vocal timbre and got it more flexible. In "Rodatempo", he celebrates, as a committed or romantic poet, the sodade (this inconsolable nostalgia of homeland), the collective memories of struggle against the severity of life, childhood, youth, and happy or thwarted passions. Fond of Cuban and Brazilian musics, Teofilo is an inspired melody writer, true to the instrumentation (guitar, cavaquinho, violin, piano) and to the traditional forms of coladera or morna which are Capeverdean songs to dance on or to cry over, he reveals himself a talented arranger, between chamber music and Creole jazz.This last CD is teeming with several collaborations. Among them you can notice Bau, who is a guitar and cavaquinho player and is also at the origin of the Mindelo bands acoustic sound that was made popular by Cesaria. You can also find Bau's bass player, José Paris and the Cuban strings section guested on the Diva's album "Café Atlantico"; Amandio Cabral, one of the revered composers of the previous generation and Vitorino Chantre, Teofilo's father now living in the caperdean community in Rotterdam- are featured on the CD and have written several songs.Teofilo's velvety voice and the cool swing of the guitar make him close to the Brazilian bossa nova singers; copying also the strings of the sensuous Cuban charanga, he excels in a sweet and sour, tender and sophisticate register. The one that Cesaria appreciates. Some of the songs ("Cruz de Jomd‚Ebra", "Ponta Linda") seem to be made for her, in the same style of the famous composer, uncle of Cesaria' B. Leza Smooth mornas, slow coladeras, romantic boleros give this album an atmosphere of elegant melancholy that is omnipresent even on the dance numbers where the rustic accordion ("Tchoro Quemode") and the carnival drums ("Rosario") are dominant. Teofilo Chantre has promoted to standards some compositions that have the qualities of Capeverdean classics.TÉOFILO CHANTRE / discography:album "TERRA & CRETCHEU" CD Lusafrica 262882album "DI ALMA" - CD Lusafrica 262382New album "Rodatempo" - CD Lusafrica 362182