Waldemar Bastos

Waldemar Bastos

Line up

  • João Mouro  (guitar)
  • Mick Trovoada (percussion, vocals)
  • Rui Meira (guitar)
  • Waldemar Bastos (vocals, guitar)

Links

Waldemar Bastos believes in the healing power of music and his heartfelt interpretations, though often tinged with a deep weltschmerz, always communicate an essential optimism that love will prevail. He was born in the Angolan/Congolese borderlands but fled his homeland in 1982 during the brutal post-independence civil war, heading first to Lisbon, then West Berlin, then Brazil, where he recorded his first landmark album, Estamos Juntos. He settled in Lisbon in 1985 and released two more albums before gaining wider attention with his 1997 album, Pretaluz, recorded in New York for Luaka Bop. Since 2003, he has been revisiting his homeland where he remains a much-loved figure. Reconnecting with his roots has shown its influence on his subsequent albums, reinforcing the importance of his African heritage to his universal style of Lusophone music.