April 17-18, 2007
$21.50
Make a reservation for this show.
The Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley presents Cape Verdean vocalist LURA for two nights. Band members are TBA. Set time on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30, doors open at 6:00pm on Tuesday and 5:30pm Wednesday.
“In Lura, Cape Verde has a beautiful face- and a steely, seductive voice- to represent its traditions. Her tunes are sunnier than fados, often integrating elements of R&B and funk. And her powerhouse vocals make even serious minded tracks like ‘Vazulina’- a rebuke of Africans who straighten the kink out of their hair- sound like love songs.” – Rolling Stone Magazine
Thirty-year-old Maria de Lurdes Pina Assuncao has been singing nearly half her life, though recognition beyond the ex-pat Cape Verdean community of Lisbon has only recently become a reality. Seeing her on stage, you would never know that Portuguese singer Lura is a down-home country girl. “I’m proud of my heritage,” declares the performer. “My father and mother were born and grew up in the countryside of Cape Verde.” Her poised and beguiling performances are worthy of a cosmopolitan diva but her new album M’bem di Fora (I Come from the Country) on Times Square/4Q Records March 27, 2007, draws on her family’s rural roots while revealing a side of Cape Verdean music that is new to most North American audiences. She throws in a little R&B as a nod to her own generation. In 2006 she was nominated for the BBC Radio’s Planet Awards in the categories of Best African Artist and Best Newcomer.
The history of Cape Verde is one of immigration and return. In spite of her family’s search for better fortune in another country, Lura’s own journey brought her right back to the people and rhythms of the land they left. Now Cape Verde’s rising star brings her island roots to world stages reaffirming to the world the archipelago’s unexpected rich musical heritage.
Official Website: http://www.jazzalley.com/artist.asp?name=Lura