Phill Barboza
Félix Edmund Barboza
USA, 1914 – USA, 1993
Instrumentalist (trumpet)
Phill Barboza is one of the North American musicians of Cape Verdean origin whose artistic career falls within the world of jazz, but who still maintains a connection with the music of the land of the ascendants – his father was from Fogo, and the mother from São Nicolau.
Throughout his long career, he led several bands but data on his discography is scarce. Two EPs at the beginning of the 1960s – So sabe e Cabo Verde: Phill Barboza and his Latin American Music –, in addition to the LP Paul Gonsalves & Phill Barboza Latin Orchestra, the latter with the vocal participation of Vickie Vierra, this is all the research of Phill Barboza was able to identify.
In his youth, at the end of the 1950s, the later acclaimed pianist Chick Corea played with the “Portuguese” musician Phill Barboza, according to the Billboard website, thus having influenced the musician to the extent that it led him to open to Latin sounds.
The annual event of the Black History Month Commission in the community of Woods Hole (a fishing village located in Cape Cod), reveals Phill Barboza’s participation until 1992. In the following year the event featured a movie about the musician, produced for the Talk about Jazz broadcast on a local TV channel (not available online).
According to Carlos Gonçalves, in his work Kab Verd band (2006), the artist visited Cape Verde several times in the 1980s, having performed at Brava in 1984 with the violinists Nho Becha and Nho Tuca, accompanied by other local musicians, and in 1988 performed in Praia with Zequinha Magra (guitar), Gonçalves himself (drums) and Zé Povo (bass), among others. Moacyr Rodrigues, in turn, chronicles Barboza’s visit to Mindelo in 1986, where he performed for three nights, between the Piano Bar and the Nautical Club, accompanied by Chico Serra, Tolas, Tey Santos, Pomba and Calú (Voz di Povo, 03.08.1986).
Discography
(in the Cape Verdean Context)
- So sabe, single, [?], USA, 1960.
- Sufrimente / Milho Branco, single, 1962.
- Cabo Verde: Phill Barboza and his Latin American Music, EP, 1962. With participation of Paul Gonsalves (sax tenor] and Vickie Vierra (voice).
- Paul Gonsalves & Phill Barboza Latin Orchestra, LP, [?]. With participation of Vickie Vierra.
