António Tavares
Assomada, 1958
Instrumentalist (bass), singer, composer

Totó Tavares began learning music with his brother Norberto Tavares when he was a teenager in Assomada, and during that time he was a member of the group Pó di Terra. After emigrating, he became part of groups led by Norberto, such as Black Power in Portugal during the1970s, and later Tropical Power, when they were already living in the United States.

Besides music, he worked as a mechanic, but from 1998 he underwent a religious conversion after being touched by the “divine flame”, as he recounted to A Semana online (March, 19, 2009): “Before that, my dream as an artist was to seek fame, money, and social status, to use and abuse women. However, no matter how great my satisfaction was, I felt a great emptiness inside me, until one day, in 1998, I encountered Jesus.” He then became a gospel singer, and in 2009 he released his debut album, Cabo Verde Téra Kerida, featuring songs that express his faith, sung in Cabo Verdean creole and set to the rhythms of mornas, coladeras, and funanas.

Discography

• Cabo Verde téra kerida, CD, self-released, Brockton, 2009.