Kriol Jazz Festival: The Bridge To The World

Each April, in the city of Praia on Santiago Island, a quiet transformation occurs. You can sense it not just in the tide or the slow heat that settles over Plateau, but in the clatter of instrument cases, the hum of tuning guitars, and the faint rhythms spilling from rehearsal rooms tucked behind colonial facades. The Kriol Jazz Festival is about to begin.

Launched in 2009 by Harmonia, a key cultural organiser in Cabo Verde, the festival was created with a specific intent: to frame Cape Verdean music not as an isolated tradition, but as part of a broader Creole and Atlantic musical conversation. The name itself — ‘Kriol’ — speaks to this perspective. The festival is jazz at its core, yes, but it also draws from Afro-Caribbean, Lusophone, Latin American, and continental African traditions. It’s less a genre event than a cultural meeting ground.

How it All Started

“In 2008, the Capeverdean producer Djô da Silva was nurturing the idea of holding a jazz festival in Cabo Verde, a jazz festival that would express a certain creole-ness while accentuating African sonorities. He managed to convince the Praia municipal government, thus beginning a promising partnership whose primary mission was to bring more music to Cabo Verde. Joint plans and paths were outlined, and hence the first edition of the Kriol Jazz Festival was born.

 

The feedback from the public left no margin for doubts: the initiative had to be kept going. The challenge was immediately accepted and new partnerships were sought out as, little by little, stage by stage, the festival consolidated its position on the city’s and, indeed, the country’s cultural agenda.”

Unique Festival Form

From the outset, the programming resisted the formula of high-profile headliners with standardised sets. Instead, it carved out space for musicians with shared roots and distinct local stories. Artists from Cuba, Brazil, Guadeloupe, Angola, Haiti, Mozambique, and Portugal regularly share stages with Cape Verdean voices — Tito Paris, Mario Lucio, Bau, and Lura among them. The result is not a lineup that competes, but one that converses.

The heart of the event is Praça Luís de Camões, an open square in Praia’s historic Plateau district. The backdrop — stone buildings, jacaranda trees, and a salt-heavy breeze — provides just enough space for music to travel without needing amplification. Performances here feel less like spectacle and more like storytelling. The crowd is a blend of residents, returnees from the diaspora, and curious travellers. For many Cape Verdeans living abroad, the festival is not only a sonic experience — it’s an emotional homecoming.

In a music landscape shaped increasingly by scale and speed, Kriol Jazz stands apart. There are no LED panels or sponsored side-shows. The emphasis is on musicianship and the histories embedded in performance. Festival director, José da Silva, summed it up saying:

“This isn’t about making it big. It’s about making it matter.”

Workshops and More

Parallel to the public concerts, the festival hosts a range of side events, including school workshops, artist exchanges, and spontaneous jam sessions held in rehearsal halls and courtyards. These have become essential for young local musicians. After attending a percussion session led by Brazilian drummer Robertinho Silva, a student from Praia’s conservatory once said: “He taught us to listen, not just to play.”

Cape Verdean Identity

The Kriol Jazz Festival also prompts questions about identity. Music in Cabo Verde has long reflected the country’s history of migration, social inequality, and resilience. From colonial resistance songs to morna ballads sung in far-off port cities, it has been an archive of experience. Today, the festival brings that archive into dialogue with new forms — digital, diasporic, and hybrid.

It asks: What does it mean to sound Cape Verdean in the 21st century?

Kriol Festival 2019 Anniversary

In 2019, the 10th anniversary edition featured Cape Verdean artists, including Ray Lema, Mario Canonge, and Mayra Andrade, performing to packed audiences, with an overall mood of unhurried attentiveness and reflection. In 2023, after two years of cancellations and uncertainty, the festival returned with a pared-down but focused programme. Local guitarist Tcheka delivered an introspective set; Eneida Marta brought a stillness that felt like a long, exhaling breath.

Kriol Jazz Festival is more than a festival. It’s an ongoing project to reframe Cape Verdean music within a global tradition while preserving the intimacy of its roots. It reminds audiences that jazz, in the broadest sense, is still a language of meeting, and Cabo Verde remains a fluent speaker.

Bibliography

• Photos from Kriol Jazz Festival official Facebook page;
• Kriol Jazz Festival official website: www.krioljazzfestival.com;
• Harmonia – Festival Organiser Archive and Press Releases;
• TCV and RTC – Festival Interviews and Live Recordings;
• UNESCO Creative Cities Network Report: Praia (2022);
• Africultures: Cabo Verdean Music and Cultural Identity Essays;
• Academic journal: Lusophone Music Cultures and Transatlantic Jazz Studies;
• RTP África coverage of Kriol Jazz Festival performances.