The multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and poet Paulino Vieira, had a packed auditorium waiting for him to hear him, one of those responsible for the internationalization of popular music in Cape Verde was also decisive when he took Cesária Évora to the great stages of the world, still leaving its mark on hundreds of projects by Cape Verdean artists.
The concert really started with a presentation by Paulino Vieira and his will, since the beginning of his career, to unite Portuguese-speaking peoples with their cultures, innovate and enrich their music.
Paulino Vieira was the artist chosen to mark the 10 years of activity of Ao Sul do Mundo, a cultural platform that works with artists as diverse as Fausto Bordalo Dias, Selma Uamusse, Conan Osiris, Filipe Sambado, Moullinex, Tristany or Paulo Flores, among others. , in addition to ensuring the representation in our country of several important international names such as the late Elza Soares, Bombino, Anthony Joseph, or Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Gregory Porter. In a decade of special projects, and concerts inside and outside Portugal, Ao Sul do Mundo built a remarkable presence in the national music scene.
Paulino was born in 1955 in Praia Branca, São Nicolau, and soon devoted himself to music, following his father, Santos Vieira, his first teacher, before continuing his studies with master Jaime Rodolfo. At the age of 18, he headed to Lisbon at the invitation of Bana and Luís Morais, assuming a prominent place in the third generation of the collective Voz de Cabo Verde, on keyboards, but also making the arrangements and even compositions of some themes, which quickly became classics, ‘Encontrarei o Amor’, one of those songs that would give the name to the album released that same year.
Two years later, when the mythical Monte Cara de Bana opened in Lisbon, which would be a meeting point for musicians, composers, and singers from all over the Portuguese-speaking world, Paulino would be one of the regular artists and played many of the musicians who passed through the stage, influencing generations of Portuguese-speaking musicians, who regularly performed at the space in Rua do Sol ao Rato, Rui Veloso, Trovante and Heróis do Mar among many others, his name even appears in the technical sheets of Heróis do Mar or António Variações.
Paulino Vieira, a musician, arranger, and producer of excellence, became a regular presence in the studios where the greatest classics of Cape Verde were recorded. He played on albums by Zezé Di Nha Reinalda, João Cirilo, Leonel Almeida, and Bana, Paulino even says that he lost count of the number of albums he participated in.
In the 1990s, Paulino Vieira appears associated with Cesária Évora, with his brother, Toy Vieira, he was responsible for almost all the instruments of the classic ‘Miss Perfumado’ which in 1992 put the name of the diva Cesária Évora in the mouths of the world, recorded also ‘Cesária’ in 1995 and ‘Live À L’Olympia’ in 1996. But his name is on the technical sheets of many other artists such as Lura, and Sara Tavares among others.
A new generation of musicians, DJs, and vinyl collectors have once again rediscovered Paulino Vieira’s classics, which in recent years have been kept from the public, which made this concert even more special, a concert that the musician dedicated to the working class, to all those that are usually in the dark, hidden, but that make the work, of those who take the stage, possible.
It was, however, a concert, for some, different, where the morna and popular music of Cape Verde was not the star, although between the notes it was there, it was even heard the gusto of the public, “Play a morna”, to which Paulino replied, there will be no mornas, it was a phase that ended, I took on the responsibility of taking my country’s music to the four corners of the world, even in honor of my father, but now it’s over, now it’s going to be something else, despite the applause not everyone was satisfied.
This was a different concert, Paulino Vieira, opened the concert by saying “this will be a rehearsal”, we will play and maybe repeat it until we get right, you’ll be able to see what a rehearsal is really like, you can even go on stage and sing with us, thus justifying the layout of the stage and the existence of chairs on the stage.
One of the highlights of the night was, with the support of the audience, Paulino sang congratulations to Ao Sul do Mundo with Luís Viegas taking the stage.
With mornas or not, it will always be a pleasure to see the brilliant Paulino Vieira, a better birthday party and lusophone music couldn’t be possible.
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