Absent from the limelight for years, Cape Verdean singer, songwriter, producer and arranger Paulino Vieira has a concert scheduled for February 20, 2023, at the Centro Cultural der Belém (CCB), in Lisbon. The announcement has just been made by the Ao Sul do Mundo platform, which includes the concert in the celebration of its ten years of existence as a cooperative that brings together professionals in the area of production and artistic programming and works with artists from various areas, such as Fausto Bordalo Dias, Selma Uamusse, Conan Osiris, Filipe Sambado, Moullinex, Tristany, Lavoisier or Paulo Flores, also ensuring the representation in Portugal of international artists such as Kronos Quartet, Francisco El Hombre or Gregory Porter.
Born Paulino Jesus Santos Vieira on August 31, 1955, in the village of Praia Branca, on the island of São Nicolau, Cape Verde, into a family of musicians, Paulino learned in his childhood to play the viola, cavaquinho and violin, accompanying his father, Matias dos Santos Vieira, in parties and serenades. At the age of 9, he moved to São Vicente, where he studied at the Colégio dos Salesianos, where he received musical training and learned to play the clarinet, flute, organ and other instruments. After accompanying veterans such as Ti Goy, Frank Cavaquim or Chico Serra, he joined, as a young musician (between the ages of 16 and 18) the ensemble The Kings, which played versions of hits from the Anglo-Saxon pop music of the time.
It was at the invitation of the famous clarinetist and composer Luís Morais (1935-2002) that he moved to Lisbon in 1973, where he joined the new formation of the group Voz de Cabo Verde, alongside Bana and Luís Morais himself. And it was from that date, and from Monte Cara, the “first space” of Cape Verdean culture in Lisbon, that Paulino became evident as a composer, arranger and musical director of numerous record projects. His brother, also a musician Toy Vieira, reminded PÚBLICO of that, on the occasion of the public announcement of the Project Re: Imagine Monte Cara, which took the form of a concert and an album: “Paulino was number one, responsible for all the success of that time. At the time, we were his escorts and we learned a lot from him.” Among the musicians and singers with whom he worked were numerous Cape Verdeans (Bana, Celina Pereira, Césaria Évora, Chico Serra, Dany Silva, Leonel Almeida, Lura, Maria Alice, Otis, Sara Tavares, Titina, Tito Paris, Vaiss or Zezé Di Nha Reinalda) but also Portuguese, participating, as a musician, in records by Heróis do Mar or António Variações.
In addition to the important role he played in the group that accompanied Cesária Évora on the stages of the world, as well as in several albums recorded by her (especially the celebrated Miss Perfumed), Paulino Vieira also recorded solo, highlighting in this production the albums M’Cria Ser Poeta (1984) and Nha First Home (1996). During Expo’98, in Lisbon, he participated in the great concert that Caetano Veloso gave there, on the Sony stage. In the book Kab Green Band (2006), Cape Verdean journalist Carlos Filipe Gonçalves cites as epithets applied to Paulino Vieira the “monster of Cape Verdean music”, “musician of genius”, “poly-instrumentalist” or “great orchestrator”, while the museum virtual Cabo Verde & Música describes him as “an icon of Cape Verdean music of his time, in which he leaves a deep mark, as a composer, producer, arranger, instrumentalist”.
In the statement announcing Paulino Vieira’s concert, the organizers say, almost at the end: “Next February, in one of the most important venues in the country, Paulino Vieira will have the opportunity to help celebrate these 10 years of intense activity by Ao South of the World, but above all to travel – surrounded by a band that is being carefully prepared – a brilliant career that remains more alive than ever, parading classic after classic with its inimitable class.” Tickets for the concert, according to the organization, will be available from 3 pm on Wednesday.
