August 26, 2008

Around the World Cape Verde




It's been a while since I've done this, so getting back into the swing of things, I present Tcheka, representing the nation of Cape Verde. This small island country is off the coast of Africa, and was discovered by the Portugese in 1460, where it remained a way point for ships passing up and down the African coast.
Our artist here is Techeka, who's an afro-beat artist. Born in 1973, he's been a long time musician, playing with his father at a very early age. By the age of 15, he began playing with his own style, and eventually, went to work in the television industry on the island, and partnered with a friend, and began to play in local bars. He plays in the batuque style, which is local to Cape Verde.

According to Wikipedia:

As a music genre, the batuque is characterized by having an andante tempo, a 6/8 or 3/4 measure and traditionally it is just melodic, i.e., it is just sung, it has no polyphonic accompaniment. When compared with the other musical genres from Cape Verde, the batuque has a call and response structure, and it is the only genre that is polyrhythmic. In fact, analyzing the rhythm, one finds out that it is a 3-beat rhythm over a 2-beat rhythm.
Source


It's a beautiful style of music, and one that I'm happy to have come across. Tcheka's music is melodic and very soothing, and I'd highly recommend him.

Ana Maria - Tcheka








Sabu - Tcheka