🇨🇻 Frank De Pina – Mokeros (1983) 🇨🇻

Frank de Pina (Francisco de Pina) is a capoverdian drummer, singer and composer.
Born on the island of Brava, Frank de Pina spent his childhood in the city of Praia, where he lived from the age of 6 to 18. As a teenager, he participated as a drummer in the group Os Vulcânicos. Later he was part of Os Camponeses, in São Domingos, with elements from Os Volcânicos and others. He lived in São Vicente between 1973 and 1974, working in inter-island navigation, and shortly after the 25th of April he left for Portugal, where he worked in mechanical metalwork, at the same time as participating in an ephemeral group called Seis Crioulos. He returned to Cape Verde in 1976 and in 1979, at the age of 24, he moved to the USA.

His family already lived in the USA. The family's connection to this country is old, as Frank's grandparents were born there. In Boston, in the early days, he worked at a Polaroid factory, in the plastics industry, among other jobs. As far as music is concerned, the week he arrived he already had a group to play with. A friend of his parents, Autilio Correia “Toto”, when he found out that the young man was going to the USA, sent him a letter telling him to look for him, as he would have a place in his group, which was called Unidos de Cabo Verde. It was an experience that lasted a year. Next, he went to Cabo Verde 77, which had been founded by Carlos Mendes, to replace the drummer, but he also sang. He stayed with this group for the entire year of 1981.
Next was the time of Tabanka Djazz – remembering here, as Frank de Pina points out, that there was a first Tabanka Djazz, in the USA, before the group from Guinea Bissau that became famous a few years later. This first one, which recorded an album, lasted from 1982 to 1988, with a break for some time. Its members were: Frank de Pina (drums and vocals), António Cabral (guitar, who is the brother of Mikas Cabral, from Tabanka Djazz in Guinea), Rui Pina (drums and vocals, like Frank), Dany Carvalho (keys), Amilton Tavares (guitar), Didé (bass), Hernani Medina “Naco” (percussion) and Daniel Santos “Nhelas” (percussion).

At Didé's wedding, the musician recalls, Mikas played bass, and after that the group stopped, and the new Tabanka Djazz emerged. “This name, in fact, is later, as only the name Tabanka appears on the Guinean group’s first album, inspired by the cover of the Os Tubarões album”, recalls Frank de Pina to Cabo Verde & a Música – Museu Virtual.

The singer-drummer then participated in the group Arpa Sound, which lasted from 1985 to 1987, with Zerui de Pina (bass), Gau Salgado (vocals), António Teixeira (guitar), José Brito (keyboard) and Isildo do Canto (guitar ). Later, he also participated in the Ice Band, and is one of the vocalists of this group who appears on the 1991 album Sonho.
Cover of the LP Um Grande Encontro (1984), a project that brings together Dany Carvalho, Frank de Pina and Paulino Vieira.
Frank de Pina began recording solo in 1983. His first LP is called Mokeros. Following this are Frank de Pina (1984), Spedjo di nos alma (1986), Ansiedade (1990), Bis ôtu Bés (1996) and Viravolta dun Vaivém (2000). Their repertoire is generally composed of mornas, koladeras, funanás. His voice is reminiscent of Ildo Lobo, a fact that at the beginning of his career earned him suggestions that he was imitating the singer, as reported by the newspaper Voz di Povo (25.10.1986), on the occasion of one of his trips to Cape Verde to perform at the Baía das Gatas Festival.

Currently living in Randolph, near Boston, Frank de Pina only performs sporadically in live music venues in the Cape Verdean community.