Kavita Shah & Cape Verdean Blues | The Music of Cesária Évora

($25-$35 | 7pm & 9pm shows) 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. Now, she brings her incredible music to the Century Room with her band featuring Bau, the former musical director of Cesária Évora! Presented by Arizona Arts Live.

Kavita Shah (voice) Bau (musical director of Cesária Évora, acoustic guitar, ukelele) Jorge Almeida (acoustic guitar) N’du Carlos (percussion)

**Kavita Shah & Cape Verdean Blues**

Kavita Shah is an award-winning jazz vocalist, composer, researcher, polyglot and lifelong New Yorker of Indian origin, hailed for possessing an “amazing dexterity for musical languages” (NPR). In her latest project, Cape Verdean Blues, she explores the sounds and stories of São Vicente, an island of Cape Verde, off West Africa, and the birthplace of world music legend Cesária Évora. 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. For this US tour, she will be joined by Bau, as well as two other masters of Cape Verdean music: guitarist Jorge Almeida and percussionist N’du Carlos.

“Gorgeous.” *- The Guardian*

“Quietly riveting.” *- The New York Times*

“What she’s doing is something completely new.” *- NPR*

*Kavita Shah (voice) Bau (musical director of Cesária Évora, acoustic guitar, ukelele) Jorge Almeida (acoustic guitar) N’du Carlos (percussion)*