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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.384.1, Connecticut Historical S…
Southern New England Apprenticeship Program Year 8 Concert - Jorge Job & Djim Job
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.384.1, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Southern New England Apprenticeship Program Year 8 Concert - Jorge Job & Djim Job

SubjectPortrait of Jorge Job Cape Verdean, 1928 - 2021
SubjectPortrait of Djim Job Cape Verdean-American
Date2006
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
DescriptionPhotographs of a required public presentation of the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program Year 8 team in Cape Verdean music composing and playing with teaching artist Jorge Job and apprentice Djim Job.

2015.196.384.1: Image of Jorge Job performing with two other guitarists, including apprentice Djim Job.

2015.196.384.2: Image of Jorge Job performing on stage with band.

2015.196.384.3: Image showing Jorge Job posed with three people.

2015.196.384.4: Image showing Djim Job climbing off stage while someone else sets up musical equipment.

2015.196.384.5-.6: Images showing Jorge and Djim Job playing music.

2015.196.384.7: Image showing Jorge Job, Djim Job, and two other musicians performing.

2015.196.384.8: Image showing Djim Job, Jorge Job, and others posing for photograph.

2015.196.384.9: Image showing Djim and Jorge Job, with one another person, posing for photograph.

2015.196.384.10: Image showing Djim Job, Jorge Job, and others standing in front of stage.
Object number2015.196.384.1-.10
CopyrightIn Copyright
NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.


Biographical Note: One of Connecticut's most accomplished Cape Verdean musicians, Jorge Job is a Cape Verdean guitar and cavaquinho player as well as a composer in Krioulu, the local language of Cape Verde. Jorge lives in Waterbury, where he is 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: Djim Job (Jorge Job Jr.) is a Cape Verdean-American bass player based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He is also a composer and vocalist with two CDs and collaboration with his brother Rui and his father Jorge on a CD “Geracao.” Djim has a high reputation as a session musician and has played with many highly regarded Cape Verdean musicians – such as Fantcha, Maria de Barros, Bana, and Lucibela – on tours all over the world as well as on disc. Djim is also a producer and arranger of Cape Verdean music. He participated in Year 8 (2005-2006) of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program, working with his father Jorge on writing mornas.


Subject Note for the Waterbury Cape Verdean Community: Waterbury has become a major center of Cape Verdean culture in Connecticut. Numbering around 200 families in the late 1990s, most Cape Verdeans in this area today came from the island of Sao Nicolau, with some from Fogo, Sao Vincente, and Sao Antao. Many more recent immigrants from Cape Verde have moved to Waterbury, making the cultural expressions here very traditional. Early immigrants settled here to work at the Scovill, Chase, and American Brass factories, especially after 1935, when the cranberry industry in Massachusetts diminished. New arrivals work in professional as well as blue collar trades.

Cape Verdeans settled in the Phoenix Street/Abbott Avenue area, very near the brass factories where they worked. More recently they have concentrated on Oak Street, which they joke should be named Sao Nicolau Street. Around 1935, a group of men founded the first social club on Abbott Avenue, moving to Vine Street as they grew. In 1993, officers of the Club purchased the present building at 1181 North Main Street. A full schedule of activities there includes musical Noite Caboverdiana (Cape Verdean nights) with popular bands from New England and Cape Verde; mazurca and funana dance contests; biska card game tournaments; and celebrations of saints' feast days with processions, repicar di tambor (intense drumming and movement) and Cape Verdean foods. These events often serve as fundraisers for families in need. Recently the Cape Verdean ambassador to the United States spent a full day at the club, taking part in a community discussion attended by representatives from Cape Verdean organizations in Bridgeport and Norwich as well.

Waterbury musicians, such as singer Johnny Spinola and bassist Tony Santos traveled and performed with Joe Silva's band throughout New England in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. When he arrived from Sao Antao in the late 1960s, keyboard player Armando Gomes formed a Cape Verdean band called Ultramarine, the name given by the Portuguese to all their colonies. After independence and an influx of new members from the islands the band became Cape Verde '75.

One of Connecticut's most accomplished Cape Verdean musicians, Jorge Job is a Cape Verdean guitar and cavaquinho player as well as a composer in Krioulu, the local language of Cape Verde. 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. Jorge has continued to play music at the Cape Verdean Social Club well into his 90s.

As in Bridgeport, young Waterbury Cape Verdeans participated in a dance group. In the late 1990s/early 2000s the group Warm Heart performed mazurca, funana, and tchabeta (a very fast rhythm-driven women's dance, part of a batuko performance) under the direction of Raquel Figueiredo. In addition to local performances, the group traveled to Providence, Rhode Island for the annual Cape Verdean Independence Day celebration on July 5. They worked with Rhode Island traditional musician Joao Cerilo Monteiro as part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program from 1999-2001.


Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to 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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