Cláudia Sofia - Mas Um Melodia (2025)

The release of the debut album “Mas um Melodia” by Cláudia Sofia from Mindelo fits seamlessly into a whole series of amazing new musical discoveries from the Cape Verde Islands, which have been enriching the world music genre with interesting grooves and sounds for many years. The 10 original compositions by the singer and guitarist from the island of Sao Vicente, home of the icon of Cape Verdean music, Cesária Évora, who died in 2011, clearly show the cultural connection between the island of Sao Vicente and Brazilian music, in line with the Évora classic “Sao Vicente é um Brasilin”. (Sao Vicente is a little Brazil).

The songs “Monte Cara”, “Nha Xodó”, “Amor flori” and also the title track of the CD, “Mas um melodia”, have that wonderful rhythmic lightness of Brazilian music. But it is not pure bossa nova or samba that sounds from the loudspeakers, the Cape Verdean dialect is always present, especially in the almost omnipresent melancholy that is so typical of the music of the island archipelago.

With the title “Crush”, the listener suddenly finds themselves in the Cape Verdean Carnaval, while the song “Fogo d’aniz” is based on the traditional rhythms of the island of Fogo in the south of the archipelago. “Sapatinha de liká” is based on a Cape Verdean children’s song. “Li te ama” surprises with complex harmonies and a sophisticated vocal arrangement.

Things also get rhythmically interesting in the song “Darlina”, a mixture of the musical styles San Jom from the North and Batuko from the South Islands, all garnished with a fat brass section recorded by Ivan Benks and his team from Sao Paulo/Brazil. In general, there are illustrious fellow musicians on the album: Andrew Aitchison, a British violin virtuoso with his soulful, almost heartbreaking melodies on the song “Nha Xodó” There are brilliant guitar interludes from Lulo Reinhardt, Gerd Stein lets it rip on the electric guitar on the extremely funky “Dona Guará”, Andreas Jammin plays a crazy intro on the trombone on the same song.

However, the foundation of the album is provided by the Cape Verdeans José Afonso on piano, Ronny Rodrigues on bass and Lucio Vieira on keyboards. Airton Almeida captivates with perfectly placed harmony vocals. The album was produced by Markus Leukel, a German drummer and percussionist who has lived in Mindelo since 2010 after intensive studies of West African and Brazilian rhythms and is an integral part of the local music scene.

But now to Cláudia Sofia herself: her single mother recognizes her daughter’s musical talent very early on, buys her a pink guitar and enrols her in a youth choir led by a classically trained Russian singer. This gave Cláudia the benefit of a sound, albeit rigorous, vocal education. As a teenager, she began to take a serious interest in the guitar, taking lessons from Rufino Almeida, known as Bau, the guitarist and musical director of the Cesária Évora Band. Since the age of 18, she has earned her living by playing concerts in Mindelo’s bars and music clubs. She even finances her law studies with music, which she completes, but then concentrates fully on music. During this time, her collaboration with Markus Leukel intensified. The two have known each other for many years. The decisive factor for this musical partnership, however, is the chance discovery that Cláudia has a large number of her own compositions, but never plays them in front of an audience. Markus encourages Cláudia in her compositional work and together they begin to record the material as professionally as possible. The result is now finished.

“Mas um Melodia” is a Cape Verdean album, but with a lot of fresh wind blowing over from Brazil and Europe to the islands.