The Kolá Project by José Luiz Ramos
Great moments have their place reserved on the stage of history, as if guided by the plans of an invisible architect, perhaps divine. Taking a step back in time, we reached 1975, a year of many hopes, independentist idealisms, obviously involving the cultural aspect. And when it comes to culture in Cape Verde, music jumps to the foreground, with morna, ‘música rainha di nos terra’, (the queen music of our land), in the verses of one of our greatest and most prolific composers, and coladeira, with its balance that does not let no one stand still.
However, Cape Verde did not stop there in terms of musical genres. Cape Verde also had some ways of making sound and dancing that, until 1975, were little known, but they did not go unnoticed by a group of young musicians imbued with some creative spirit, immense musical ideals and a huge friendship that still unites them.
Hence, innovative musical formations such as Kwela Tabanka, with Vasco Martins, Pinúria, Tei Bonga and Vlú, launched the rhythms of Sam Jom (Saint John) drums adorned with electric instruments in compositions such as 'A Dança do Fogo' (The Fire Dance). This artistic and cultural movement led, some time later, to the joining of three of the mentioned elements with other talented youngsters and thirsty for innovation: Teck Duarte, Tei Barbosa, Tolas, Pomba, to which later the vocalist Dany Pinto would join, in a formation of metals, percussion, strings and keys, which would be called 'KOLÁ - Musical Research Group'.
KOLÁ gave prominence to the new rhythms presented in its own original compositions recorded on vinyl, detached from everything that had been done before. Examples are the themes Lameirão, Guinea-Bissau, Dsusper, Adira Gram, Liberdade, Pa Frente, Incarada and Maderal. Also included were some covers, with orchestration and KOLÁ arrangements such as Jogo Bruto, Estora Estora, and Tabanka. The disc is now distributed on vinyl and CD by Electro Móvel, located in Calçada da Estrela, 13, 1200, Lisbon, Portugal.
Student life led to a break in the group's activities, which, with the departure of the bassist and keyboard player, came to act later with substitute musicians for a short period without, however, reaching the popularity of the previous formation.
However, the original idealism did not disappear and two years later, in 1978, in Portugal, Teck Duarte and Pinúria would returned to KOLÁ project, together with guitarist Bilocas Lima, drummer Tchibita, keyboardist Zé Brazão and vocalist Manú Monteiro, adopting the name KOLÁ III, which set fire to the Lisbon music scene, with emphasis on performances by university environments with fans from Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Mozambique in addition to immense Portuguese lovers of African music.
Fame spread and invitations arrived for performances in the Netherlands, which served as a springboard for shows and parties in Belgium, University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Luxembourg, and Italy on several tours in an orange Volkswagen Combo, with our music equipments and personal belongings on the roof, in an authentic 'Babylon by Bus'. At the end of this period, another vinyl was recorded in 1979 on the famous Valentine de Carvalho Discography and entitled 'Kolá Sam Jom', making a 'loop' of return to the origins of all this evolutionary musical process. The work is also distributed by Electro Móvel. This album is completely filled with original themes composed by Teck Duarte and Pinúria.
Four decades later, the shows and the sui generis sonority of the KOLÁ project are still remembered.
José Luiz Ramos (Pinúria, bassist)