Last April, a French record label, Hot Mule, released a compilation album of songs by Guinea-Bissau music legend José Carlos Schwarz. Entitled "Lua Ki Di Nos", this vinyl release, which is also available online, is a portrait and tribute to this artist linked to the anti-colonial struggle of the 70s.
Poet and musician, author of songs denouncing oppression while dignifying the traditional sounds of Guinea-Bissau, as part of the group "Cobiana Djazz" and as a solo artist, José Carlos Schwarz was tortured and imprisoned in the early 1970s for his political involvement.
After 1973, the year in which Guinea-Bissau's independence was proclaimed, José Carlos Schwarz became director of his country's arts and culture department and was also in charge of children's issues in Guinea-Bissau. It was a promising career that ended too soon, at the age of 27, in May 1977, in a plane crash in Havana, shortly after being appointed diplomat at his country's embassy in Cuba.
What remains of him, however, are songs that have never lost their symbolism or their charm and that today, more than 40 years later, are made known and recognized by Louis Hautemulle, founder of the entity that reissues the obra de José Carlos Schwarzafter literally feeling "love at first sight". We spoke to him and also to one of the artist's sons, Remna Schwarz, who is also a musician. Both evoked this major figure in Guinea-Bissau's culture.
