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Language:

Creol

Genre:

Morna Coladeira

Instrument:

Female vocals

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On Capeverdean music

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Biography

Her music is Coladeras and Mornas, European sounding styles whose roots date back to the 1800s, when Cape Verde's port was an important halfway station for Atlantic trading.Musical influences have dribbled in from all corners of the globe, but the most dominant are those of the former colonials Portugal, Angola and Brazil.The Cape Verde Islands have been stamped by an ever-changing population. When the Portuguese arrived in the islands and took control in 1460 there were no permanent residents.Lying out in the Atlantic Ocean, about 350 miles off the coast of West Africa, meant the 12 islands were well placed to become supply bases for sailing ships.Bit by bit the plantations were built up, worked by slaves. Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony for 400 years in all. The Islands' inhabitants are descendents of Portuguese and slaves. "My songs are about loss and longing, love, politics, immigration - and reality. We sing about our land; about the sun; the rain that never comes; about poverty and problems; how the people on Cape Verde live," says Cesaria Evora.
Cesaria Evora's main strength as a vocalist is the authority with which she sings. She is first and foremost an interpreter of others' lyrics and melodies, including her uncle's. She sings straight, without vibrato. She pronounces the lyrics, in Creole, with a distant ease that is never overdone. Her many, often bitter, experiences can be heard in a voice that indicates a life lived. Cesaria Evora has been married three times and deserted three times. In her expression she reminds one of Billie Holiday or Edith Piaf, but does not like to be compared with them. "Each singer has her own expression," says Cesaria, who has been called "the barefoot diva" because she simply prefers to perform without shoes. Cesaria Evora is loyal to Cape Verde. Despite having become an international Artist who tours the world she continues to reside in her hometown, Mindelo, on the island of Sao Vicente. It was there she lay the foundations of her incredible career. For many years she performed in Mindelo's bars, starting at the age of 16. She began singing with a group in which her boyfriend played - and stayed. Life as a bar singer was tough, like life in Cape Verde. After many years performing in dives, she tired of being a singer. For a decade, between 1975 and 1985, she didn't perform at all. In 1988 she met producer Jose da Silva, a native of Cape Verdi who grew up in Dakar and Paris.Da Silva made it his mission to make a star out of Cesaria Evora. He let her perform for the Cape Verde's exile community in Paris. Jose da Silva established the Lusafrica record company in 1988 and that same year Evora made her debut album, "La Diva Aux Pieds Nus", in Lisbon. With "Miss Perfumado" in 1992 her career took off at speed.This was her springboard into the international world of music."Miss Perfumado" sold more than 500,000 copies and earned her five gold records. In all, Cesaria Evora has released 11 original albums and won many prizes - one from UNESCO - as a leading African singer. She has also been nominated three times for an American Grammy award.
In 2008 Cesaria Evora suffered from a stroke during her Australian tour, but she managed to come back as an artist with her albume "Nha Sentimento" from 2009.

Relevant artists:
Boy Ge Mendes
Africando
Orchestra Baobab
Ismaila Oussou Njie Señor
Bau
Teofilo Chantre
Swagato

LA DIVA AUX PIEDS NUS
Lusafrica/1988

DISTINO DI BELITA
Lusafrica/1989

MAR AZUL
Lusafrica/1991

MISS PERFUMADO  
Lusafrica/1992

Evora's album from 1992 has a sad undertone, possibly the reason for its best-seller status: it is said that sad singers always attract larger audiences than do the happy ones. From the first chord in her hit, "Sodad", this theme touches you.Most of the songs on this disk are arranged with piano as backing, something that contributes to its blues-like melancholia.But it is not only the sad one - the captivating and very African song, "Angola" is found in two mixes.This is on the whole thorough and earthy, mostly acoustic, and great.

EVORA  
Lusafrica/1995

"Evora" contains all the elements that have made Cesaria Evora an artist with international impact: here are good lyrics and melodies displayed in professional arrangements.The album is varied and earthy, and arrangements with violin, clarinet, accordion, in addition to guitar and cavaquinho, give the music an almost cabaret feel. It alternates between the plain and the poetic; it’s pulsating, almost danceable, but always has a certain rasping undertone.The English lyrics are enclosed.The songs are often performed with an ironic edge and distance, born of Cesaria's own experiences. As you can hear on "Tudo Tem Se limite": "Poverty has always been unreal for you, so who are you to judge the situation in our country? Humble Christians don't say so much, the people's justice is silence." This is timeless music.

CABO VERDE  
Lusafrica/1996

The album opens brightly with more sharp and catchy songs, such as "Tchintchirote", with jazz clarinet as its backing. Also enjoyable is the traditional "Sangue de Beirona" (Beirona's Blood), arranged by her cavaquinho-player of many years, Bau - or Rufino Almeida, his real name. He is a virtuoso of the stringed cavaquinho instrument, a ukulele-like guitar with the nickname meaning "box" in Creole. Following the first four catchy tracks, the mood becomes a little heavy with "Apocalypse", before cheering up toward the end of the album.
"Cabo Verde" is a smoother production with more brass instruments in the backing than "Cesaria". "Capo Verde" is quite like its predecessor, which perhaps was a more balanced work.

BEST OF  
Lusafrica/1998

A lovely cross section of Cesaria Evora's career here, with tracks from all her 6 CDs, released until 1998, minus "Distino de Belita". In addition to an enjoyable opening track from the soundtrack of the film "Great Expectations", there's the previously unreleased "Luiza". In all, 17 songs with great scope, from the slow and wistful mornas to sharp and swinging coladeras and, for example, the very African song, "Angola". On the whole this shows how broad a repertoire Cesaria Evora has. Altogether well-arranged, with a surprising and fresh approach to music that contains many impulses. Fascinating!
(But the disk lacks written lyrics)

CAFÉ ATLANTICO  
Lusafrica/1999

This is the most international and commercial of her (hitherto) 7 albums. The album is a big project from Lusafrica and was recorded in France and Cuba. A long list of top Cuban musicians collaborated on the disk, which has a slightly different sound than Evora's other releases. The title, "Cafe Atlantico", reflects the influences from the three countries of Cape Verde, Cuba and Brazil. The album is thorough and professional in all aspects, and moves in a romantic Latino tradition. The Cape Verde morna is a strong influence but there is in addition an African element that makes it something peculiar. This element is less consciously felt here than on Evora's earlier releases, something I personally feel she has now lost. Many of the melodies on "Cafe Atlantico" are arranged with a large orchestra; things like "Roma Criola" whip along, resembling American film music. Less successful I think is the Latino "Maria Elena"; it sounds almost like the “Last-Dance-song" in a cheap dance hall.
I like Cesaria Evora best when she holds tight to her Cape Verde roots, such as on "Vaquinha Mansa" and the title track. She is, fortunately enough, grounded in the morna tradition that balances this album.Cesaria Evora sings as grippingly as ever, and the quality of the lyrics is maintained.This is heart/pain with style!

SÃO VICENTE DI LONGE  
Lusafrica/2001

Cesaria Evora is here again, with an album that shows how the producer, Jose da Silva,has managed to turn a local bar singer into an international superstar. Her last album,"Cafe Atlantico" was highly thought of, but was a little too romantic and syrupy. This time da Silva, as producer, has brought out the positive in Atlantico's singer, but at the same time held tight to her local anchor. The result is a noteworthy album, superbly arranged, with many exciting ingredients. Here, Evora performs with a partly new band, something that makes the music sound fresh.The barefoot diva's singing is vital and well-developed in her sixtieth year.The album opens with "Sao Vicente di Longe", a full string orchestra in the background. A brass section gives many songs a nearly funky expression.
New on this disk are several duets with other singers, such as "Tiempo Y Silencio", a successful collaboration with Pedro Guerra that swings beautifully and grippingly with cavaquinho and violin gently in the background. This is the best track. The American Bonnie Raitt doesn't do badly with Creole, either, and also works well with Evora on the soulful "Crepuscular Solidao".
The lyrics are as usual about melodramatic longing, but with an edge which more than once tears at the heart. One objection - that perhaps is not even an objection but a question of personal taste - is the rather grandiose arrangements. With such a full orchestra they are a little too long and tiring. In fact, I prefer Cesaria Evora in the cabaret-like expressions such as those found on "Evora", but "Sao Vicente" is, nevertheless a lovely album.

JARDIN TROPICAL  
Harmonia/Lusafrica/2002

This is not a new Cesaria album, but a new album recently distributed by Lusafrica, by her backing band Kompass. These lads have played with Cesaria since "Café Atlantico" in 1999. As most musicians on tour they pass their time playing together, working on Cape Verdean standards or new numbers they have written. Their joy in being together, playing together and sharing the same nostalgia have led to the idea of preserving these moments on record. The band that consists of very good musicians, is a sixtet with piano, guitar, cavaquinho, bass, saxophone and percussion. In addition comes a Cuban trio of string instruments that Cesaria also takes on stage with her. No synthetic sounds here! This CD is surprisingly good. It's obvious that the boys enjoy playing together, the atmosphere is easy going, and the band members enthusiasticly play their way through their "unofficial" backstage repertoir. The style is basicly the same as with Cesaria, mornas and coladeiras, but this repertoir is more in the direction of pop and dance music. In this way "Jardin Tropical" is a perfect party record. One sometimes misses Cesaria Evora's vocals, of course, but Antonio Pina Alves is not a bad singer, either. "Jardin Tropical" has feeling and atmosphere, is catchy, well played and danceable. The only thing I miss here is originality.

ANTHOLOGY
Lusafrica/2002

VOZ D'AMOR  
Lusafrica/2003

This is Cesaria Evora' ninth original album. She has been working in the same genre since her debut with "La Diva Aux Pieds Nus", in 1988. Will there still be be more to find for Cesaria in this music, after nearly 15 years? The answer is given with "Voz d'amor" and with such a bravour that all doubt is swept away: The album is Cesaria's best ever! After some wandering about in something that at times could sound like a slight change of style, most clearly felt on "Café Atlantico" with its grande arrangements with a full symphony orchestra, she's back on solid ground with "Voz d'amor". She's back where she is at her best, in the cabaret sounding style, where she was with for instance "Evora" from 1995. Only this time with even more perfection. Cesaria Evora sings better than ever, and what makes this lady so sovereign is her presence in her songs. Cesaria Evora sings like she stands behind every single word, as if every single song is composed out of her own experience. She creates a small drama for her listener and and drags him or her into the music. And this without any kind of foul play. She just sings. As mentioned she's back in the style that I personally think she masters the best: The cabaretlike. The songs are arranged for guitar, cavaquinho, piano, violin, saxe and accordeon, and they just toss along in shifting tempos, between the soft and sentimental like in the opening track "Isolada", one of B. Lezas many Capverdean classics, and the swift, nearly danceable and catchy "Velocidade". On this album you'll also find Teofilo Chantre's beautiful version of "Greenfields", the song Brothers Four had a hit with in the USA in 1959. Through Cesaria's version, "Jardim Prometido", you could almost think the song was written on the Cape Verde islands: "In our dreams, this garden is not dead. The force of perseverence still tends it. Cape Verde is green in out hearts. Full of love, our hands will make the land grow green." There are myriads of classy details in the backing, not least in the cooperation between guitar and piano.
The sound is also better than ever, the whole record is just filled with Ceasaria's and her musician's PRESENCE. The lyrics as usual are of high standard; this simply becomes sovereign. The only critical point I'm able to come up with, is that this is almost too close to perfect! Wow!

ROGAMAR
Lusafrica 2006

NHA SENTIMENTO  
Lusafrica/2009

Three years after "Rogamar", Cesaria Evora is back with another disc, her 11th original studio album. You know what you get in the case of Cape Verdes' first lady: Longing mornas, nicely arranged, always with this sore undertone. So also this time, there is nothing surprising here. In fact I find it difficult to say something about this album that hasn't already been said about Cesaria Evora. Perhaps the fact that this album already has reached its audience, is the most remarkable thing, since Cesaria suffered from a stroke on her tour in Australia in 2008. But she still continues with her career. Impressing! You can sometimes hear that her voice is not as strong and vivid as before, perhaps a bit more distanced, but also poetic.
I miss the lyrics on my demo version, the lyrics are important in these songs, and they are often good.
The album is a mix of small arrangements, with guitar/cavaquinho, and bigger ones with a full orchestra. Not many tracks really stand out, everything is nicely done, rolling along in the usual Cape Verdean easy going way, sometimes broken up by faster songs, like "Zinha".
So well, if you want a softer and more poetic Cesaria, here you are.

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