The cosmic connection in music has spawned colourful characters and great musicians like Sun Ra and George Clinton. The innovative bandleader Ra said he’d been born in outer space, a claim also made by Clinton (although the latter’s sister reportedly said that she thought he had been born in North Carolina). Listening to their music or watching Clinton’s huge Mothership descend onto a stage that included at least one musician dressed in adult diapers, you’d certainly be excused for thinking these talented musicians were indeed from outer space.
Earlier this year another space oddity was released by the German label Analog Africa, Space Echo – The Mystery Behind The Cosmic Sound Of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed! This is a double vinyl compilation of Cape Verdean hit songs that came from a boom in electrified keyboard and guitar-driven music in the 70s.
And what inspired musicians, according to the liner notes, was a ghost ship that turned up in the spring of 1968 on Sao Nicolau Island in then Cabo Verde. The crew were nowhere to be seen. The villagers of nearby Cachaco were surprised by the ship and asked village elders to open the ship’s cargo. But news travels fast and before they could do that the area had already been secured by colonial police. Scientists followed and after weeks of study concluded that the ship had “fallen from the sky”. The villagers laughed at this, and they said that knew that already. But what they didn’t know was that the bow of the ship showed evidence of extreme heat and “cosmic particles”.
Eventually, a team of welders was summoned and they opened the many containers that made up the ship’s cargo. For an area that did not have any electricity, what the villagers found was disappointing; inside the containers and crates were hundreds of new synthesizers and electronic instruments, keyboards of all kinds.
It turns out that the ship had left Baltimore on the east coast of the US in March 1968 with a shipment of synthesisers, including the innovators of the day like Moog, Rhodes and Hammond, bound for an important industry exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. It was the first expo of its kind in South America and interest was high for the latest gadgets and electronic instruments. The ship disappeared off radar the day it set sail and no one heard anything about its whereabouts until it turned up on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, after apparently falling from the sky.
Despite their disappointment, the villagers stored the goods in the local church, although the women of the village demanded that they all be removed before Sunday mass. And the story takes another delightful twist. Somehow, the anti-colonial leader Amilcar Cabral emerges and orders that the instruments be distributed equally to those places that had electricity, which meant schools. Whether this is true or not, lots of keyboards found their way into the hands of teachers and curious students and this inspired the modernisation of local styles like Mornas, Coladeras and, a style that features heavily on the compilation, Funana. Interestingly, the latter genre was banned by the Portuguese authorities until 1975 for its excessive “sensuality”.
One of those kids was Paulino Vieira, who by the late 70s would go on to become one of the country’s leading music producers. Half of the songs on the compilation were recorded with his backing band, Voz de Cabo Verde.
And what of the music? Well, after a fanciful story like that the music had better be good and the tracks I’ve heard did not disappoint. There are a lot of Funana-style up-tempo dancers, which sometimes sound a little like Angolan or Antillean music, then sometimes like Colombian Cumbia or Brazilian music. Very good for dancing. Many of the songs also have that “saudade” (sodade in Cape Verde dialect) sad feeling in the vocals that was so beloved of the country’s first international super star, the late Cesaria Evora, a master Morna singer. Great songs. Highly recommended.
Space Echo is available online and comes in vinyl format with digital download. Visit www.analogafrica.com.
I’ll be playing some Cape Verdean music at my World Beat night at Studio Lam on Saturday. Starts at 9pm till late. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/1893339064225936/
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.