Mayra Andrade knows how to pull the heart’s strings with her voice.
Mayra Andrade’s voice calls up the wondrous image of a siren. Like the mythical creature, few would be able to resist the charms of her singing. On her latest album, reEncanto, the Cape Verdean artist revels in the sublime and the simple, reinterpreting songs from across her 20-year career on the prestigious stage of London’s Union Chapel, whose backdrop and audience gives an elevated artistry to the one-hour-plus performance.
When Andrade spoke with OkayAfrica, she elucidated her ideas with the calmness and fluency of an old soul. Never mind that she’s just 39 years old, Andrade’s lifelong relationship with music enriches her perspective. In 2022, she’d been touring her last album, Manga, and after becoming pregnant with her daughter, recording reEncanto fulfilled a “need to be in a more intimate set-up.”
Pulsing through motherhood yet invoking the classics of her luminous past, the album thrives in its encompassing vision. Andrade is solely backed by Djodje Almeida, whose guitar playing evokes the waterscapes of Cape Verde, that small, beautiful country whose influence has never been lost on Andrade.
Together they emerge with one of the most ambitious projects of the year, an achievement of sound and expression. reEncanto is emblematic of the fact that African music stretches far beyond what falls under the summary tag of Afrobeats. Andrade’s project is even more revealing of its shared intimacies with other sounds, in this case through the nomadic strings of the guitar, whose cultural relevance connects Africa with Latin America and the wider Black world.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
OkayAfrica: When did you get the idea to put together a live album that encapsulates your career so far?
Mayra Andrade: In 2022, I was still on tour for my previous album Manga, and I was pregnant with my daughter. I started feeling the need to be in a more intimate set-up, because my tour was with a full band and I was singing and dancing in high heels. It was a really beautiful moment of my career, but there came the need to look inside and have something that would connect me with my audience in a much deeper way.
So I decided to make this project where I only performed songs that I had written and composed, from the first album to the latest… to rediscover my own voice. And I came to the realization that, many of those songs, I could have written today. It was beautiful to see that although I’m not the same person anymore, they still pick me. And it ended up becoming a very important project for my career.
Was there a peculiar intent behind the selection of songs?
I started with trying all the songs. Some were written a few years ago, some much longer. I wanted to feel them. I showed my guitarist (Almeida) the original chords I used when I wrote the songs, so he was really diving into the composition aspect. And then I started singing them and seeing what made more sense. Then you have to build the dynamics of a show. It’s a voice and guitar show… and we have to keep our audience with us for one hour, 45 minutes, so at some point, the dynamics within each song, the fluctuations, the energy — you’re kind of designing a landscape of emotions. So the choice of songs had to do with that also.
Are there any live albums that have made an impression on you?
Well, yes. There’s a live album by Elis Regina. She’s one of the greatest Brazilian singers; she passed away many years ago. The album was recorded live at the Montreal Jazz Festival; I think it was in 1979. Then you have some albums from Otis Redding [and] Nina Simone.
In general, I’m not a huge fan of live albums, which could be a bit surprising to hear. But some albums that I have discovered directly on the live recordings are okay with me. When the version of a song played live is very similar to the studio version, I tend to prefer the studio version. But when it’s a different set-up, imagine, with an orchestra, or guitar and voice, it’s a different proposition — then I take it. Because sometimes the singers — not jazz singers — ask the crowd to sing too much, you know. It’s nice, but sometimes you just want to hear the singer singing the songs.
“I think musicians have a responsibility to talk to people’s hearts and people’s own consciousness; to unify people and to inspire them — to build a better world.” - Mayra Andrade
Photo by Fabrice Bourgelle.
You recorded reEncanto at the Union Chapel. Is there a peculiar quality the place had that made it easy to perform there?
There was an expectation around the shows because [the dates were] sold out far ahead of time. So we felt the enthusiasm around the shows, right? When you do a live recording, it’s interesting to have a crowd that is your crowd, that’s excited about the music that you want to bring. The Union Chapel is a place with amazing acoustics. It’s a church, and I think it has the perfect acoustics for this project, to be honest. Many albums have been recorded there before, so it was an opportunity that I didn’t want to miss. I recorded it without being sure if I was going to release it or not. But then it became clear to us, the project was just growing and growing, and it was becoming an experience with the crowd: this deserved to exist even when I stopped doing the tour. It’s an interesting way of getting to know who the artist is. Because you have the albums, sonically they’re different, all the musicians playing, all the arrangements. But here it’s raw. And I think it’s very rare today that artists put themselves out there like this.
How long have you and Almedia been working together and what’s your creative relationship like?
We started working together on a contemporary dance piece. There is a great choreographer in Portugal called Clara Andermatt and this musician called Joao Lucas. It was this piece called Pantera, which was a tribute to the life and legacy of a friend who passed away when I was 16; he was 33. We were both working on this performance, that’s where I got to know him and we became friends. When I was done with the project, I called him asking, ‘Would you fancy doing some guitar and voice shows with me?’ He was very excited about the project, and it was interesting to see him grow as a musician and gain self-confidence. You know, he’s younger than me, like five or six years, and it was the first time he was doing a project like this with so much responsibility. You don’t have a place to hide when it’s just guitar and voice, right? So yeah, it’s been a beautiful journey and he has a lot of talent. His input is precious to the songs.
What would you say have been some lessons you’ve learned from your years in the music scene?
I don’t know if I can give lessons, to be honest, but maybe advice would be, for those who want to do music, is that the world will change. People around you will change, so it is really important that you stop and listen to who you really are. And no matter what the genre or the things that you wanna try in your music or creative field, just make sure that your essence is protected, because this is what will ensure that in two decades, or five decades, or when you’ve gone, people will listen to your music. Maybe not everybody will like your music, but those who like it, will feel that that was you. We live in a world where it’s very difficult for people to hear their inner voice and actually remember who they are. I think musicians have a responsibility to talk to people’s hearts and people’s own consciousness; to unify people and to inspire them — to build a better world.- Watch Cabo Verdean Songstress Mayra Andrade's 'Ilha De Santiago' [Premiere] ›
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