In a candid interview with “Candida Rose” Hemsley she describes, in her own words her debut album entitled “KabuMerikana: The Sum of Me”. “It defines who I’m and what I feel. All the little pieces of who I’m and that is Cape Verdean as well as an American,” says Candida Rose. The 45-year-old mother, wife, and grandmother wanted the album to be a marriage of her two worlds which has helped to define the person that she is today. “I decided that it couldn’t be one or the other, it just wouldn’t be fair. I wanted the CD to be rooted in the Cape Verdean culture, although I was born here,” she continues.
The title of the album captures just what represents “Candida Rose”; Cape Verdean/American woman. When asked where the catch phrase originated from, with a delicate smile she gave much credit to her producer “Kalu” Monteiro who helped her to brainstorm a name that would encapsulate the essence of her worlds. “I want to bring those two worlds together through the music. I also wanted to make sure that whoever was listening to this CD would understand it,” explains the vocalist. Uniquely so, Rose provides her listeners with a translation within some of the songs in both English and Krioulo.
The album has been a long awaited phenomenon but certainly serves to prove that everything happens within its own timing. “I have always wanted to put together a CD since the mid 80’s but the time finally felt right,” she says. The 10 track CD was recorded from July of 2005 to December of 2005 at Notera Studios in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The album finally hit the market on May 30, 2006. Her debut CD is an eclectic mix of her Cape Verdean musical roots and her American influences of jazz/blues and gospel/spiritual. Beautifully combined, she introduces to the world a fresh perspective and compilation of both World and Jazz music in which she defines as “KabuJazz”.
Born, raised and currently residing in New Bedford, Massachusetts the female vocalist remained true to her roots. Her late father George Antonio Baptista had always been a significant part of her life and in helping to keep the Cape Verdean Culture alive. “My father was everything to me; he died thirteen years ago but it still feels like yesterday,” says Rose. Just an infant when her mother Gertrude Santos Baptista died and she was left to be raised by her grandmother and later by her father and stepmother Ecilda Lobo who arrived to the States speaking no English. In an attempt to communicate with her stepmother, Candida learned to speak Krioulo early on in her childhood.
When she moved to Boston, Massachusetts in her early adulthood, she lost the connection with her Cape Verdean Culture along with her speech. “I lost a lot of my connection being away from the Cape Verdean community,” she explains. There was a twenty year span in her adulthood with her being away from the Cape Verdean Community. But she would soon return to where it all began; New Bedford.
It would not be just to describe “Candida Rose” without first introducing the profound impact that the church has had both personally and musically. “I wanted to build a relationship with God and trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing with my music,” she says. She joined the Church in 1995 where she would then be introduced to gospel music. Without really knowing much about the fundamentals of gospel, she began to learn more through research and teaching of the youth choir.
Conflicted between her love of being a Jazz performer and a woman of God, she began her quest for answers. “I have always been able to touch people with my singing, I wanted to still be able to do that,” she says. She sought direction from her pastor at the time and he gave her his blessing to do what she felt was right in her heart; that was to continue to perform. “You don’t have to be in church to touch somebody, to minister to somebody,” she says. The very first thing said to “Candida Rose” after speaking with her pastor was ‘God bless you’ during one of her performances. This not only served as a sign for her to continue to perform but an inspiration for her to further her education.
In May 2005 “Candida Rose” Hemsley graduated magna cum lade with a bachelor’s degree in African-American/World Music Studies from UMass Dartmouth. “What brought my wanting to reconnect was really going back to school to study African-American World Music,” says Rose. During her studies however, she began to question why there weren’t any focus on Cape Verdean music. “I started doing that same kind of research about Cape Verdean music that I did about Jazz,” she reveals. The passion for her discovery would soon escalate with her researching deeper and discovering the great Cape Verdean/American Jazz musician, Horace Silver. Fascinated by the way he incorporated the Cape Verdean Culture into Jazz music; Rose too would combine these two worlds through her own diverse style.
The vision of this new released album is to share with the world what it truly means to be “KabuMerikana”. “I can honestly say that with this CD, each song means something,” she says. “I sing what I feel that is why every song on the CD has a meaning. I try to convey that feeling through my voice.”
With each track you are bound to find a little of everything. She has dedicated her heart and soul to this project and now comes the time to share it with the world. In the songs entitled ‘Afro Blue’ and ‘That’s All (E So)’, sings an American Jazz standard. In ‘Sodade (Missing You)’ and ‘Amor di Mai (A Mother’s Love)’, sings Cape Verdean standard. “The song ‘Sodade’ for me has become a reverse, it’s a sodade for a country that I have never even seen, never even been to.” To sum it all up, “Candida Rose” demonstrates with this album her song writing, composing, and arranging skills in songs: ‘Kabu Verdi Un Dia (Cape Verde, One Day)’, ‘Karta pa Nha Pai (Letter to my Father)’, and ‘Too Late to turn Back Now’.
When Rose described “Karta pa Nha Pai” and its meaning, we both stood in silence, her soul opened up and I understood it all. “Now he will always be alive for eternity. His spirit will always know that and people will know what he is to me.” Little words were needed to explain a daughter’s undying love for her father. Although he is not here to hear her words to him, she hopes that through her music he may be able to.
“This last song really brings the CD together, it’s about me but in a greater scheme of things, it’s about who my people are and that is a mix of everything.” Delivered through spoken word the song, ‘Sum Of Me (Un Poku di Tude-A Little of All)’ was a poem given to Rose by her professor and renowned poet, Everett Hoagland. This poem is what inspired the project to take the direction in sharing the richness of her culture.
The making of the album has been a family affair and a unity of artistic talents. “Candida Rose” wholeheartedly gives many praises to her husband Leon Hemsley taking the photos for the cover page and doing the design. Her stepdaughter Gina designed the logo for her production company ‘Golden Rose Music’. While also blessed with artistic abilities, daughter Marissa Terryce sings background vocals.
This album will touch the young and the old as it speaks to the heart and the soul. “I truly try to sing from my heart and my soul,” she concludes. There is calmness about her person as well as her voice that sends you to a place deep within yourself; I was at that place while in her presence.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
FEMALE BEAT
DJ Cila never feels confined to her booth at Lava Gina, New York City’s premier world music lounge, where her groovy spin has reinforced the reputation of the city that never sleeps by always rocking her crowd into a frenzy. “I play world music. If I have it, I am going to share it with my friends when they come into my house wherever I am spinning I want to make them feel comfortable,” assures the barefooted DJ, who never hesitates to kick off her shoes to join the crowd on the dance floor.
With world beats at her finger tips, she provides a blend of cultures--catering a mix repertoire to a crowd, which includes friends and people who have traveled from afar to see her gifted fingers dash over the turntables night after night. With heavy influences deriving from Hip-Hop, R & B, House, Funk, Samba, Haitian Kompa, Salsa, and Zouk genres, DJ Cila consistently takes her audience on a cultural journey. “I play what other DJs will not. I play what’s on your CD player. I bring all cultures together by playing music from different parts of the world,” says this native of Praia, Cape Verde, who proudly flaunts a barefoot image (Pé na tchon), which she says started in the nineties when she promoted Boston’s nightclub Piteku. “Some friends and I would get barefoot and dance. I then adopted the word and made it a part of me so to speak,” she further explains.
DJ Cila’s quest at Lava Gina began after a close friend introduced her to the owners. The interest was instantly reciprocated. She has since made it her permanent spot, as she travels from Boston to New York City every other Friday of the month, packed with her world tunes. “She is very popular, very outgoing, and has a great personality. She has a really good chemistry with everyone here and it's really good to have her,” says Chris Pollok, co-owner of Lava Gina World, which opened its doors in 2000.
Before becoming the toast of Lava Gina, she was an aspiring house music DJ whose love for turntables got the attention of a Boston’s club promoter. “He came out with this crazy idea of giving me a floor, since he saw that I had turntables at home and was also a club promoter at the time. He tried to convince me that I should come to the club and play music for my friends. Have it be a big old party,” she explains, referring to Evans aka DJ EE2EE4 of Club Virtigo. The idea seemed foreign to DJ Cila at the time, but one that would quickly allow her an entrance into Boston’s night scene, soon becoming permanent at the club while getting the invitation to spin at countless Ethiopian concerts throughout Massachusetts--an opportune time to learn about other cultures and also introduce her Capeverdean culture. “I have played at Ethiopian concerts where I’ve thrown on Capeverdean music where Ethiopians were gigging,” says DJ Cila, who has made guest appearances at Club Plato, Club Pure, Ultra Lounge, Club Brazil, Villa Victoria in Massachusetts and Sounds of Brazil (S.O.B.s) in New York City.
Being one of the few Capeverdean female DJs, she hopes to change the perception of this male-dominated business as she is often mistaken for a male disk jockey. Says DJ Cila: “The advantage is that I am a woman and the disadvantage is that I am a woman. Yes, it sounds funny but it’s the way it is. Truthfully, at first I don’t mind, I love seeing the reaction on people’s faces. Of course, I then start to think about ‘how can people be so closed minded’. Maybe they need to come out of their box and experience other things.”
As far back as “Cila” can remember music has always been part of her life and that’s why she is so keenly interested in music production. “I always wanted to make my own music. I would think ‘how can I loop this part of the song and maybe mix it with this other song.’ These were the ideas that I had in my head,” she explains. Though, she was a bit hesitant to communicate this passion to someone else, fearing that being a female could prevent her from becoming an engineer or a producer. She eventually she fulfilled her dream by attaining a degree in Recording Arts from Full Sail College in Florida. With a childhood dream still very much alive, DJ Cila does aspire to be amongst the female music producers in the near future.
With world beats at her finger tips, she provides a blend of cultures--catering a mix repertoire to a crowd, which includes friends and people who have traveled from afar to see her gifted fingers dash over the turntables night after night. With heavy influences deriving from Hip-Hop, R & B, House, Funk, Samba, Haitian Kompa, Salsa, and Zouk genres, DJ Cila consistently takes her audience on a cultural journey. “I play what other DJs will not. I play what’s on your CD player. I bring all cultures together by playing music from different parts of the world,” says this native of Praia, Cape Verde, who proudly flaunts a barefoot image (Pé na tchon), which she says started in the nineties when she promoted Boston’s nightclub Piteku. “Some friends and I would get barefoot and dance. I then adopted the word and made it a part of me so to speak,” she further explains.
DJ Cila’s quest at Lava Gina began after a close friend introduced her to the owners. The interest was instantly reciprocated. She has since made it her permanent spot, as she travels from Boston to New York City every other Friday of the month, packed with her world tunes. “She is very popular, very outgoing, and has a great personality. She has a really good chemistry with everyone here and it's really good to have her,” says Chris Pollok, co-owner of Lava Gina World, which opened its doors in 2000.
Before becoming the toast of Lava Gina, she was an aspiring house music DJ whose love for turntables got the attention of a Boston’s club promoter. “He came out with this crazy idea of giving me a floor, since he saw that I had turntables at home and was also a club promoter at the time. He tried to convince me that I should come to the club and play music for my friends. Have it be a big old party,” she explains, referring to Evans aka DJ EE2EE4 of Club Virtigo. The idea seemed foreign to DJ Cila at the time, but one that would quickly allow her an entrance into Boston’s night scene, soon becoming permanent at the club while getting the invitation to spin at countless Ethiopian concerts throughout Massachusetts--an opportune time to learn about other cultures and also introduce her Capeverdean culture. “I have played at Ethiopian concerts where I’ve thrown on Capeverdean music where Ethiopians were gigging,” says DJ Cila, who has made guest appearances at Club Plato, Club Pure, Ultra Lounge, Club Brazil, Villa Victoria in Massachusetts and Sounds of Brazil (S.O.B.s) in New York City.
Being one of the few Capeverdean female DJs, she hopes to change the perception of this male-dominated business as she is often mistaken for a male disk jockey. Says DJ Cila: “The advantage is that I am a woman and the disadvantage is that I am a woman. Yes, it sounds funny but it’s the way it is. Truthfully, at first I don’t mind, I love seeing the reaction on people’s faces. Of course, I then start to think about ‘how can people be so closed minded’. Maybe they need to come out of their box and experience other things.”
As far back as “Cila” can remember music has always been part of her life and that’s why she is so keenly interested in music production. “I always wanted to make my own music. I would think ‘how can I loop this part of the song and maybe mix it with this other song.’ These were the ideas that I had in my head,” she explains. Though, she was a bit hesitant to communicate this passion to someone else, fearing that being a female could prevent her from becoming an engineer or a producer. She eventually she fulfilled her dream by attaining a degree in Recording Arts from Full Sail College in Florida. With a childhood dream still very much alive, DJ Cila does aspire to be amongst the female music producers in the near future.
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