Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.577c, Connecticut Historical S ...

Performances by Connecticut Cape Verdean Musicians

PerformerPerformed by Pedro Cardoso (Cape Verdean)

PerformerPerformed by Rose Ramalho Canute (Cape Verdean, 1930 - 2006)

PerformerPerformed by Jorge Job (Cape Verdean, 1928 - 2021)

PerformerPerformed by John DeBrito (Cape Verdean, 1928 - 2014)

Date1996 September

Mediumreformatted audio cassette tape

DimensionsDuration (side 1): 40 Minutes, 31 Seconds Duration (side 2): 29 Minutes, 19 Seconds Duration (total runtime): 1 Hours, 9 Minutes, 57 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

CopyrightIn Copyright

Object number2015.196.577a-d

DescriptionDigitized audio cassette tape containing recordings of performances by Connecticut Cape Verdean musicians. Performers include: Pedro Cardoso, Rose Ramalho, Jorge Job, and John DeBrito. The tape was compiled by Lynne Williamson in September 1996.

Side A features Pedro Cardoso; Rose Ramalho singing “Bissau” with an introduction by Laura Pires Hester; Jorge Job cavaquinho with John deBrito on violin copied from Mattatuck Museum tapes made by Jill Linzee in 1992.

Side B features Jorge Job and John deBrito.

NotesSubject Note: Copy of support materials tape with compilation of Connecticut Cape Verdean musicians sent to Fund For Folk Culture with grant application for the Cape Verdean project in September 1996.

Biographical Note: Rose Ramalho Canute (1930-2006), sister of Antonia Ramalho Sequeira and daughter of musician Francisco Ramalho, was born in Bridgeport and lived in Wareham, Massachusetts later in her life. Rose was a singer of Cape Verdean popular and traditional songs, and toured all over New England with several bands in the 1940s and 1950s. Growing up she learned Cape Verdean songs while their father Chico Clau played his violin. Starting in her teens, Rose traveled with violinist Julio Neves' band to play at community clubs throughout southern New England. Pioneer producer and distributor Al Lopes, a viola player from New Bedford, Massachusetts, made one of the earliest Cape Verdean-American music recordings, of Rose singing the morna Bissau.

Biographical Note: Pedro Cardoso, originally from Praia, Cape Verde, is a Bridgeport, Connecticut based record and TV producer of Cape Verdean music and content. He has recorded and self-produced five albums as a singer with guest musicians. He also produced many programs for public access TV Sodadi Cabo Verde in New Haven and Bridgeport. He was involved in the Cape Verdean Community History project co-managed by CCHAP and community scholar Antonia Sequeira, being interviewed and performing in the project concert in 1999, in Waterbury. Pedro Cardoso has since moved back to Praia, the capital of Cabo Verde, on the island of Santiago.

Biographical Note: One of Connecticut's most accomplished Cape Verdean musicians, Jorge Job (1928-2021) was a Cape Verdean guitar and cavaquinho player as well as a composer in Krioulu, the local language of Cape Verde. Jorge lived in Waterbury, where he retired from a lifetime’s work as a cook. Born into a farming family on the island of Sal in 1928, Jorge was a shepherd as a boy. Later, at age 11, he worked in the kitchen of Cape Verde's only international airport, just built at that time on Sal. From the time he was 20, Jorge moved from island to island as a cook and on oil freighters traveling from his island of Sal to the western hemisphere. His morna Shell 15 describes a near disaster suffered by that ship and its crew - including Jorge - when they encountered a hurricane while transporting oil between Cape Verde and Senegal. Jorge worked as a cook at a restaurant in Waterbury where he emigrated with his family in 1974.

Music has always been a central part of Jorge's life, an important vehicle of expression for his experiences. He has written sambas for Carnival, parade marches for soccer teams, coladeiras, and nine mornas with lyrics based on actual events in Cape Verde. People on the islands share each others' sorrows, expressing their grief through mornas. Luis Cordero relates a story about two men tuna-fishing from the rocks, a very dangerous activity because of the depth of the sea and the precipitous cliffs. Ano Novo was written about an imprisoned man; his mother cried when Jorge sang it for her at New Year. Morna d'Corral is a bittersweet song about a lost love from Jorge's youth.

Jorge and his son Rui, a professional keyboard player and record producer, have arranged many of Jorge's compositions for their CD "Geracao," published in 2006. Bassist Djim Job (Jorginho), a professional bass player, has collaborated with his father on several musical ventures including composing mornas under the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2005-2006. Away from Cape Verde and deeply emotional experiences, Jorge doesn't write many mornas these days, saying "morna is very sentimental, you have to have inspiration to create it. Now I would go with another type - bolero, coladeira, samba. I'm crazy for samba!"

Biographical Note: Joao (John) DeBrito was a violin (rebeca) player born in Sao Nicolau in 1928. He worked as an electrician and took other jobs after emigrating first to the Netherlands and then to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he worked at two production companies. Known as Joaquinho, he served as president of the Cape Verdean Club and was a life-long member. He loved football and dancing and had a large family in the United States and Cape Verde. John often played music with his friend Jorge Job at the Cape Verdean Club and onstage.

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

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