SOLD OUT - Mayra Andrade, Support: The Ronnie Scotts All Stars Monday 18th July - Tuesday 19th July

Mayra Andrade                - vocals

Munir Hossn                      - guitar

Stéphane CASTRY            - bass

Zé Luis Nascimento         - percussion

Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade’s multi-layered music embraces Brazilian inflections, Cuban melodies, funky basslines and flamenco guitars to create a heady mix of sounds. Andrade is arguably the front-runner of the many talents that have emerged from Cape Verde in recent years. Performing here from her latest album Studio 105, out now on Sterns, Andrade plays two special nights in the intimate club setting of Ronnie Scott’s.

Winner of BBC Radio 3 World Music ‘Newcomer’ Award 

‘Blending her homeland’s post-colonnial African, Portuguese and Brazilian influences with shades of jazz, pop, funk, reggae and ska, her seductively cool yet lambent voice floated, flirted and yearned over rootsy, slinky backing from her five piece band, winning a roomful of new fans.’ Scotland Herald

‘Still in her 20s, she looks like a tropical diva, with her swept-back hair and colourful gown, and switched effortlessly from easy-going Latin songs to jazz balladry or the choppy, upbeat Cape Verdean rhythms of Nha Damaxa.’ Guardian

‘Andrade effortlessly blends the morna tradition with elements of samba and a soupçon of francophone romance’. The Times

'A stunningly delicate Creole voice’ The Sunday Times

Links

www.myspace.com/mayraandrade/music

Biography

Mayra Andrade first appeared on stage in Cape Verde ten years ago after successive stays in Senegal, Angola and Germany. The Cuban-born teenager sang at a charity event organised by the French Cultural Centre in Praia, accompanied only by a guitar and flute. She was only fifteen, but her assurance (acquired in numerous minor family and school performances) was already impressive. The following year, she visited Canada and was awarded the gold medal for song at the Jeux de la Francophonie, a measure of her precocious talent (Mayra Andrade began to speak French when she was six). She was already well-known as a budding star of Cape Verdean song when she arrived in Paris in 2003 and began to perform at one world-music venue after another with a group of two guitars, bass and percussion. Word spread of the young singer and her mellow, fresh, slightly husky voice, whose  presence on stage left its mark on anyone lucky enough to see her perform.

Her first album, “Navega”, came as a revelation in 2006. The general public was thrilled to discover her remarkable voice and her new take on Cape Verde’s musical diversity. Mayra Andrade’s work was a modern reinterpretation, rooted in the rich soil of the archipelago’s traditions, but also open to influences discovered on her travels. Following the public and critical success of “Navega”, her second record, “Stória, stória… “, released in 2009, further explored that interplay between the rhythmic heritages of Cape Verde and its transatlantic cousins, Brazil and Cuba. It was an ode to Creolity, enhanced by sophisticated orchestrations and reflecting the musically-multicoloured singer’s thirst for new horizons.

Like her music, lilting and meandering, Mayra Andrade’s approach to her career is anything but linear. It was her need to take on new challenges that led the singer to make “Studio 105”, which heralds a new stage in her work, which increasingly defies any categorisation.