Carmen Souza in Estonia!

Carmen Souza was born in Lisbon within a Christian family of Cape Verdeans. She grew up in a mixed language environment of Creole, the Cape Verde dialect her parents spoke at home, and Portuguese, always surrounded by the Cape Verdean way of life.

In her teens she sang professionally in a Lusophone Gospel Choir. Being a strongly spiritual person, Carmen always saw music as her mission and felt privileged to have the opportunity to express herself through it, working hard every day to deserve that opportunity. Musicians like Luis Morais, Theo Pas'cal, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarret, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Horace Silver, etc, are definitely those that truly inspire her evolution and search for a unique personal style.

Theo Pas'cal, her producer and mentor and one of the best bass players in Portugal, discovered her talent and introduced Carmen to Jazz, Fusion and other contemporary sounds that markedly influenced her musical development.

In 2003, Carmen began working with Theo on the compositions that would be included on her début album Ess ê nha Cabo Verde. Carmen wanted to create a new sound, in her ancestor’s dialect Creole, that would mix traditional African and Cape Verde rhythms like Batuke, Morna, Cola djon, and others, with her jazz contemporary influences, in a totally intimate and acoustic vibe, different from the traditional festive environment of Cape Verdean sounds.

In her second and third albums "Verdade" and "Protegid" Carmen Souza sings an exciting and melodically vibrant repertoire in Creole that once again received amazing reviews from the International Press worldwide. She blends perfectly with elegance and sophistication the African and Cape Verdean traditional rhythms with Contemporary Jazz and Afro-Latin. Once again the two composers, Carmen Souza and Theo Pas’cal, present an album that pushes even more the limits of what constitutes the Cape Verdean music, World Music and Jazz.

The album "Protegid" is receives outstanding reviews from all over the World and the Press recognizes that something new is being developed in her music. World Music Central consider the album: "a landmark that will prompt you to embrace and at the same time rethink everything you know and love about the sounds of Cape Verde", NPR says: "opens a window to another world entirely" and The Independent declares: "the poetic voice is as original as the musical one".

"Protegid" also receives a nomination for the German Record Critic’s Award, and enters the WMCE in April. A new edition of "Verdade", her second album recently released by Galileo, also enters the WMCE in August and by the end of the year this album was included in several lists of "Best World Music Album 2010".

Carmen Souza have been touring extensively around the World since 2005 and in 2010 she played at big stages like The North Sea Jazz Festival (NL), London African Music Festival (UK) or the Leverkusener Jazztage Festival (DE).

Carmen delves into the warm and melodic registers of the great jazz divas, only to flee into more contemporary terrain immediately thereafter...the singer cloaks Cape Verdean music in new garb. Carmen Souza has become a true world music force and one of Europe's most in-demand jazz singers.

Carmen visits Estonia with her three talented musicians and a technician. All the musicians, including Carmen are multi-instrumentalists offering two spectacular shows – in Tallinn Vene Kultuurikeskus and Tartu Vanemuise Kontserdimaja.