Jorge Humberto
If morna is above all poetry, Jorge Humberto gives it back its pure form lyricism of its origins, in an inspired song and colorful texts that refer to the island's daily life. Magician of words, instinctive and profound, the son of Mindelo is the creator of a style in which the poetic-musical vein is enriched by philosophical reflection. “Hymn of love, illusion and melancholy” in the words of the poet FaustDuarte, morna is the preferred musical form, but not the only one, in repertoire of this artist, who also likes to compose coladeiras faster sound and with content open to social vision.
A singer with a warm and convincing voice, Jorge Humberto, was born on December 26th in São Vicente, in the port city of Mindelo, cosmopolitan center and cultural capital of the archipelago since the 1930s. The beginning of his work as a composer dates back to 1975, the year of independence. The end of colonization frees the spirits that mobilize in all fields of art. This creative effervescence also manifests itself with a flowering of groups that give new impetus to traditional music (mornas and coladeiras) or the valorization of its African sources (Batuque,Tabanka...) or European (Mazurka, Contradance...).
Jorge Humberto followed suit and in 1982, he began playing mornas and classical guitar coladeiras, with a particular predilection for heritage of ancient poets such as Eugénio Tavares and B.Leza, quite close to his sensitivity as a social columnist.
After suffering a work accident that weakened his fingers forcing him to play the guitar in a particular way, Jorge Humberto settled in Portugal. Here, he makes his first three albums, ("Guentá" in 1992, "Moiábo um consôlá" in 1995 and "Portexperimental" in 1998), that will give you great notoriety both in your country and among diaspora communities in Europe and the United States for more afternoon recording in Paris his fourth album « Identidade » with Morabeza Records, in 2004.
Jorge Humberto's fifth album, « Ar de nha terra », would become recorded in 2009 in Cape Verde, with the house « Harmonia », to de followed by « Chris Music » in Paris in 2012, his sixth
album, « Arpur ». His seventh album, produced by himself, was recorded in 2016. was called « Nôv’ Astral ». Before the end of 2021, Jorge Humberto released a new auto-production, his eighth album called “Ôjêmdia”
It is also worth mentioning that the artist Jorge Humberto is the author and composer of most of the songs he performs himself and are part of his discography, with the exception of one or two
Song. His compositions are highly regarded by Cape Verdean artists and are also performed by renowned singers such as Fantcha, Maria Alice, Bius, Filintro Barros, Calu Bana, Mariana Ramos, Tito Paris, Rosa Mestre, Dudu Araújo and many other artists). The troubadour from Mindelo is a particular case in the musical landscape of Cape Verde.
If the haunting melancholy of his early compositions was somewhat nuanced ("Now I've changed at the level of words in the song," he says today), the richness and originality of his texts with the depth and spontaneity, your way of approaching reality, making it the heir to these enlightened singers of Cape Verdeanity, writers and poets like Baltazar Lopes or Jorge Barbosa, who were among the protagonists of the “Claridade” literary movement during the 30s in Mindelo.
With his psychological observations, existential reflections and metaphors, Jorge Humberto's writing is more similar to philosophy than to social criticism. The Creole language that he handles and loves "like the food he eats", a native Creole and deeply rooted in the history of his country, allows you greater precision in expression and greater grip sound from the lyrics to the music.
Contacted by « Morabeza Records » in Paris in 2004, record label founded in 1966 in Rotterdam, by Djunga de Biluca and which played a fundamental role in promoting the works of artists of the islands, the poet from Mindelo will finally seize the opportunity to enter the difficult world of showbiz.
This one who prefers himself to be “Cape Verdean in the universal”, Jorge Humberto, will continue to bring Cape Verdean music to its audience and to the audience he discovered about thirty-two years, following the first Cesária Évora tours, a touch of authenticity for the better enjoy the heartbreaking melodies of the blues coming from the Atlantic.
Luigi Elongui
