Past Forward: Tabanka Records co-founder Henrique Silva

Honestly, It was a difficult mission to choose only two, but these are, for me, important points of reference in different ways. 

Feiticeira de Cor Morena

The first one is called Feiticeira de Cor Morena, and it’s by one of the great violinists from Cabo Verde, Antoninho Travadinha. He's one of my favorite musicians. He was a genius—a guy from Santo Antão, who became a violin virtuoso. It’s the only album he made in his life, but he became a big, big name in the Cabo Verdean scene in the 60s, 70s.

For me, it's an album that... I mean, it's just always a pleasure to listen to it, from the beginning to the end. Everytime I put it on, I have to listen to it from beginning to end. It's amazing. It's full of mornas and coladeiras, and I love the way he plays them.

Fitxadu

The second one, the modern album, was a more difficult choice for me, but I had to go with this album from Sara Tavares called Fitxadu (2017). 

Sara Tavares passed away three years ago, really young, at 45. She had cancer in her head. Two or three times she fought it and she won, but this last time she sadly died. For me, she will always be a representative of the power of diaspora.

She was born here in Portugal and became a superstar when she was a teenager. That was in the 1990s. And then she began her journey into the traditional and folkloric music from Cabo Verde, the music of her origins, you know. Her mother and father are from Cabo Verde.

On this last album she assembled lots of big musicians, big name composers. But of course she's also a composer, musician, and producer herself. She did a bit of everything and I think this album kind of made a huge difference in the way we are doing Cabo Verdean music. It's not only the sounds of Cabo Verde, of course, it's a mix of other influences as well. But for me, I just had to choose her.

Sarah Tavares was a real genius and an important musician both for Cabo Verde and everything created in the diaspora. 

— Henrique Silva (Tabanka Records)