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For the past seven years, acclaimed jazz vocalist Kavita Shah has been busy on the Atlantic island of São Vicente, immersing in the traditional mornas and coladeiras of her idol and global music legend Cesária Évora. The result is "Cape Verdean Blues" (2023, Folkalist Records)—a carefully curated love letter to Évora's breathtaking archipelago. Shah, herself a daughter of diaspora who resonated with the music’s language of longing, has teamed up with Évora’s longtime bandmates–including the master acoustic guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Bau (Évora's longtime musical director)–to create her most personal work to date: this is music that makes you want to dance and cry at the same time.

 

Kavita Shah is an award-winning vocalist, composer, researcher, polyglot, and educator who makes work in deep engagement with the jazz tradition, while also addressing and advancing its global sensibilities. Her projects include "Visions" (2014), produced by Lionel Loueke, "Folk Songs of Naboréa" (2017), commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory, and "Interplay" (2018), in duet with François Moutin, which was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique (France) in the category of Jazz Album of the Year. Kavita regularly presents her music at major concert halls, festivals, and clubs on six continents.

 

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“Gorgeous.”

- The Guardian

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“Quietly riveting.”

- The New York Times

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“A polyglot in more than language alone.”

- Boston Globe

 

​"What she's doing is something completely new.”

- NPR

 

“Shah’s music reflects the insatiably curious mind of an ethnographer, the soul of a poet, and the eye of a painter.”

- WNPR