Francisco Xavier da Cruz

Francisco Xavier da Cruz [B. LÉZA] was born in the city of Mindelo, São Vicente Island, on December 3, 1905. From a very young age he showed a cultural appetite, creativity, an independent spirit, and a decidedly pedagogical inclination. He is certainly one of the great musical figures as a composer and performer of enormous importance, leaving us more than four hundred compositions of various types: from guitar solos, coladeiras, waltzes, boleros, sports and carnival marches, mazurkas, polkas, sambadas, galopes, and fados. Versatile in the development of morna-fado, morna-tango, and particularly mornas; so much so that he purposely commissioned the construction of [his favorite guitar] in Lisbon, which he named... "Bronze"However, where he most distinguished himself as a composer was in the construction and modification of the Morna, by introducing the semitone, today an indisputably rich heritage of Cape Verde: he gave it more life, color, dreams, essence, and his own stamp. He died on June 14, 1958, on the same island where he was born.