Francisco Xavier da Cruz

Mindelo, São Vicente, 1905 – Mindelo, São Vicente, 1958

Songwriter

B.Léza is one of the most celebrated Cabo Verdean songwriters. His birthday, December 3rd, is National Morna Day, established in 2018 by the Cabo Verdean government shortly before the submission of Morna’s candidacy to UNESCO, approved in December of 2019 for inclusion on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. His songs, decades after his death, remain on the lips of Cabo Verdeans and continue to be recorded by performers of younger generations.

By introducing a transitional chord between two tones of the melody, also called a “half tone” (or semitone), B.Léza is credited with establishing a milestone in the evolution of morna, this being his great contribution to the History of Cabo Verdean Music. This innovation is attributed to the influence of Brazilian music, with which the composer came into contact through the sailors who regularly called at Porto Grande.

B.Léza was an extremely popular figure. By the 1930s, he was already a well-established composer. In 1940, he traveled to Portugal to participate in the Portuguese World Exhibition, leading a group of five musicians. At the end of the exhibition, his companions returned to Cabo Verde, and B.Léza, who had an orthopedic problem (resulting from bone tuberculosis he had suffered in his youth), stayed in Lisbon for treatment. He returned to Sao Vicente in 1945 in a wheelchair. Among other compositions from this period in Portugal are the mornas ‘Terra longe’ and ‘Ondas sagradas do Tejo’.

“When we have the objectivity to ascertain your true measure, then, B.Léza, you will be an almost mystical figure for what our people understand best, and what you interpreted like no one else: the lyrical encounter with the horizons hidden behind the daily hardships.”

Baltasar Lopes da Silva, on the microphone of Rádio Barlavento, on the night of June 14, 1958, when B.Léza died.

The composer’s life ended in poverty, alcoholism, and illness, which did not prevent, if indeed inspired, some of his most beautiful compositions.

B.Léza’s songs began to be recorded in the early 1950s, and have since remained present in the repertoire of a large number of Cabo Verdean performers and even some foreigners. In addition to his musical work, especially his mornas, though he also composed koladeras, carnival marches, and sambas, B.Léza published poems in Portuguese and Cabo Verdean Creole, as well as some prose texts.

Current events

A record featuring the voice of composer B.Léza, accompanied by Luís Rendall, is scheduled for release by the Portuguese label Tradisom. These are recordings made by businessman Tuta Melo (Augusto Guilherme Lima de Melo, 1916-1999) in the early 1950s. The information was published by the Portuguese newspaper Público (02.24.2021).

Songs

Académica, Alfacinha (partnership with Luís Rendall), Alo Alo Sanvicente; Amizade, Amor, Barca Sagres; Bejo d’ Sodade (Bêjo di sodade/Ondas do Tejo); Bia; Brasil; Chã de Pedra; Dilinha; Distino d’ homi; Dor de Sodade; Doutor Adriano; Dulcinha (Dulcínia); Eclipse; Estrela da marinha; Fada; Flor de rosera; Fraco sentimento; Hitler; Isolada; Judith; Lua nha testemunha; Luísa; M’ sonha cu bo Djar-Fogo; Mar azul; Marcha de Oriundo; Rapsódia de mornas; Micá; Mindelense; Minduca; Miss perfumado; Miss Unidos; Morabeza; Morgadinha; Nossa Senhora de Fátima; Nôte de Mindelo; Nova Sintra; Odjo di nhâ; Oriondina; Partida; Paul; Pensamento; Resposta d’ segredo co mar; Ribeira Grande (sometimes attributed to Mário Marta, or a partnership between the two); Romance do nosso amor; Romeu dos mares; Segredo cu mar; Talvez; Tanha; Terra longe; Trás d’ horizonte.

Works authored by B.Léza

• Uma partícula da Lira Caboverdeana (Praia, Tipografia Minerva de Cabo Verde, 1933, letras de mornas).
• Flores murchas (Mindelo, Sociedade de Tipografia e Publicidade Lda, 1938, poesia).
• Fragmentos – Retalhos de um poemeto perdido no naufrágio da vida (Mindelo, Sociedade de Tipografia e Publicidade Lda, S. Vicente, 1946, poesia).
• Razão da amizade caboverdiana pela Inglaterra (Rio de Janeiro, no date, 1950, prose text of a historical nature, with a glossary of terms in the Cabo Verdean dialect of São Vicente).

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