With Angolan parents and grandparents from Cape Verde, Brazil and Portugal, Aline Frazão was born and raised in Luanda. She debuted on stage aged only nine, since then learning to walk the paths of traditional Angolan and Cape Verdean music, Brazilian bossanova, Portuguese fado and jazz. Aged 15, she first heard Ella Fitzgerald, and discovered vocal jazz: ‘I felt like I was discovering a new dimension, the voice as an instrument… Jazz opened up doors in my mind.’

After completing high school, Aline moved to Europe to study Communications at university. Lisbon, then Barcelona, then Madrid. She honed her musical skills, writing and performing solo in cafes and bars. Seeking to unite her two passions of traveling and singing, Aline worked in Paris, Dublin, Lisbon, Luanda, Brussels, London and Buenos Aires. She now lives in Santiago de Compostela, where she enjoys the slower pace and can truly focus on her music.

Yet in the back of Aline’s mind, Luanda keeps calling. “Things are always changing in Luanda, the creativity and the public; everything changes fast. You hear a new kuduro every day, a new artist, a new dance… For any artist, Luanda is an intriguing place, full of contrast, stimulating.” For Aline, Luanda is also home, “unable to be ugly,” a city that fascinates her intellectually and creatively, a place she would like to return to live, eventually.

In September 2011, Aline Frazão entered the studio to record her first album. ‘Clave Bantu’ brings together eleven original songs as composed during four years of travel. The title track was inspired when Aline heard a Spanish radio presenter explain how music from Congo and Angola had travelled across the Atlantic and how this gave birth to different styles and influenced all black American music.

‘I was fascinated by it because those are my influences, my roots, the rhythm that makes me live. So I wrote ‘Clave Bantu’, a homage to all of this rhythm – not only a song, not only a music but it’s about a lifestyle, a culture; it’s about a rhythm of living your life.’
In 2013 she recorded and produced her second album ‘Movimento’.

In 2014, the renowned DJ and BBC presenter Rita Ray caught up with Aline Frazão at the Atlantic Music Expo in Praia, Cape Verde. Aline explained she is part of the post-independence generation of musicians who draw on their traditions and the ever-evolving musical dialogue of the African diaspora, whilst at the same time absorbing other influences from across the globe to create their own musical identity.

Aline continues, ‘Music is a good way to get into your feelings and to make you communicate something and understand that sometimes language is not enough. I do write love songs and sad songs and songs of nostalgia: this too is a constant feeling in my music.’