 
Young Doctor Chris called me up late one night, all excited. I figured he was test-driving some advanced medical experiment on his central nervous system as it must have been 3 a.m. where he was. He wanted me to hear something and propped the phone up to a speaker. This is something I hate: you can't hear the music very well and yelling "Okay, enough already!" doesn't help because the person on the other end doesn't hear you and has put the phone down to go to the bathroom or get another beer or whatever while you enjoy the music. Just like being on hold to a corporation! So after a while he comes back on, breathlessly asking me what I think. It's "Bruca Manigua" by Arsenio Rodriguez played by Africans, I tell him. Yes, right on! but what do you think? Hard to say, it was scratchy but had energy. It is Senegalese? I ask. No, Cabo Verdean. It's this great old album called Voz de Cabo Verde, he tells me, something he picked up on his last trip to Africa. So I was pleased to get the new Voz de Cabo Verde album, it seemed like synchronicity. They have followed in the footsteps of some of their illustrious neighbours, Baobab, Bembeya Jazz and Rail Band, and reformed to have one more swirl around the dancefloor under the glitterball. It's just a little weary. The horns are consistently off, but the vocalists have their moments of sprightliness. Their chops haven't improved with age, but the audience is eating it up, and there's a big room boom to the recording which is fun but it seems like a sleepy 50s kind of night rather than something in the modern world. If you like Cabo Verdean music you will want this and you should check it out anyway. -- Doctor Rhythm
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