A Jazz Lamb Called Sandra
By Monsieur Polk
Looking for the Angolan songstress Sandra Cordeiro on-line is a quite the odyssey, and when you do find the golden fleece of information much of it is in Portuguese. Google translate does a decent enough job, and then goes one further by translating Sandra’s surname, Cordeiro, as well… you then get Sandra Lamb; cute and strangely apt.
In person Sandra Cordeiro is petite, elegant composed and if there is anything timid about her it would be her limited English language skills (“I’ll learn to speak English next time,” Cordeiro quipped) but its an unimportant skill in the grander scheme of things. If you didn’t know better you might imagine Cordeiro as coming from Brazil through her thoughtful sing song way of speaking Portuguese; except she is from Angola, which is infinitely closer than Brazil, and Angola is actually well on the way to becoming a desirable leisure destination in part through its two year old foray into the international jazz festival circuit with the Luanda International Jazz Festival. Sandra first played the Luanda stage before she graced the Cape Town stage at this year’s 12th Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
At the pre festival press conference Cordeiro speaks through an interpreter, which leaves non Portuguese speakers feeling a little left out, however her answers display more depth than the average 23 year old as she responds to a question about how the Luanda jazz festival has made a cultural impact on the Angolan music scene. “The Angolan musical scene is still recovering from the after effects of a long civil war but the reception has been positive from local artists,” said Cordeiro, giving an even handed answer. One can only imagine what the effects of a civil war are on a country’s arts and culture. Apartheid may be able to provide a frame work of understanding interms of arts and culture taking a back seat to more pressing socio-political issues. However just like in South Africa the Angolan arts had no intention of dieing out during the troubled times, and indeed there is an energy that radiates for Cordeiro’s performances that just said Heita da! Something is happening here!
“There were people who tried to do something like Afro Jazz but it is very difficult in our country because we have the roots style like Samba, Kilapanga, Kizomba (that’s the young style) more… how could I say… more roots, the styles that people know. Like if you were in a farm you would start listening for this style, but jazz is something new for everybody…” said José Esteves Cacunga, (or Stive) of N’guimbi (Cordeiro’s management) when talking about the well received Luanda International Jazz Festival, heading for its third year in 2011. Back in Cape Town, the Moses Molelekwa stage needed to be more intimate for Cordeiro’s performance only because her music was so soothing and carried a passion that wanted a cosy and smoky room with couches and long cocktails. Unfortunately the audience was aligned in rows and was somewhat restricted. Instead of rushing to the front where maybe couples could have danced intimately for what it was worth, people mostly stayed in their seats and swayed to the music. Musically Angola is similar to other countries with the Portuguese colonial footprint with that added twist of local languages, such as Kimbundu in Cordeiro’s case. The instrumentation seemed to come straight out of Brazil with the smooth Bossanova and Samba music infused with Angolan flair, mainly in the singing language.
Cordeiro managed to get an encore on the Molelekwa stage which was an affirmation of talent for someone who only entered the music industry in 2007. With a single album, under her stylish belt (Tata N’zimbe – meaning ‘Our Lord’ in Kimbundu) Cordiero has already racked accolades that include a nod from Radio France’s International Discovery Prize for 2010 by being a top ten finalist. This means the best is yet to come for this young Angolan. By way of a South African comparison Zama Jobe comes to mind. When Jobe resurfaced with her second album and presented some of her new material at Spier Wine Estate in 2007, she took a new direction and it showed that she hadn’t quite settled into her stride yet. But Jobe was still convincing enough, as was Cordeiro in some of her high notes, not quite there but oh so close. The young women are still exciting to experience on stage and completely enchanting in their performances, and will definitely deliver well above expectation when they really get going.
The Luanda Jazz Festival is on at the last weekend of July and it is an opportunity to see other Angolan artists that will surely bring their A-game in front of a home crowd. Hopefully Cordeiro will make the billing a second time, even more fittingly after giving a solid performance on the much more prestigious Cape Town based jazz festival.