Cesaria Evora - Biography
From the islands of Cabo Verde, off the West Coast of Africa, Cesária Évora’s rise to the status of world music diva around the age of fifty is a testament to the transcendent power of music. Centered largely on the morna, a mostly minor key style of music which explores feelings of loss and mournful expression, Évora’s voice drips with emotion yet soars like a bird slowly rising in bold, deliberate strokes. Cabo Verde’s unique location, several hundred miles off the coast of Senegal, and the long colonial history as a Portuguese colony and a major port of the slave trade, are contributing factors that gave rise to a unique culture and music. The elegant morna employs piano, mandolin, guitar, violin, and minor percussion in a song form that bears resemblance to the Portuguese fado, the Brazilian modinha, Angolan folklore, the French chanson, and perhaps even the sea shanty. The mixture of European and African elements reflects Cabo Verde’s history as a crossroads in and out of Africa; the Cuban military used it as a stopover point to and from Africa when they were helping Angola fight a proxy war with South Africa in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Cabo Verde’s own Diaspora meant that there were more Cabo Verdeans living in other countries than back home on the islands and Évora’s ascent to fame is the story of how one woman’s voice appeared out of the blue and firmly placed an entire culture squarely on the world map.
Born August 27, 1941 on the island of São Vicente, Évora used to sit on her father’s lap as he played violin, but after his death at age 7, her mother struggled and ultimately placed her in an orphanage, where she sang in the choir. As a teenager she became enamored with a sailor/musician who encouraged her to sing, teaching her many traditional mornas and coladeiras, a more rhythmic traditional music of Cabo Verde. She began to sing in the bars and restaurants in Mindelo, the largest town on the small island, making a name for herself as the “Queen of Morna.” Although a fan of Portuguese fado legend, Amalia Rodrigues, as well as Billie Holiday, Évora is hesitant to connect the morna and fado while admitting the morna’s kinship with the blues as a sufferer’s music.
A Portuguese colony since the fifteenth century, Cabo Verde gained independence along with the African country of Guinea-Bissau in 1975, with the assistance of Cuba after a protracted guerrilla war. Around this time, though well known and popular, Évora had become disappointed by the bleak economic prospects of a music career and stopped singing professionally. She turned her attentions to raising her children and struggled with alcohol, remaining off stage for ten years. At the urging of Cabo Verdean exile musician Bana, she went to Portugal in 1985 where she performed shows under the auspices of a women’s organization. Seizing the opportunity to record a couple tracks that were released on a collection of women from Cabo Verde, she was encouraged by Jose Da Silva, a French citizen of Cabo Verdean ancestry, to perform in Paris, where she quickly garnered attention. It didn’t take long until she was performing to larger audiences in Europe than she ever had back home.
Da Silva launched his Lusafrica record label, producing Évora’s first international release La Diva Aux Pieds Nus (1988 Buda Musique). The title is derived from her European acquired moniker, “the barefoot Diva,” as she was affectionately known for her shoeless stage presence. Popular with her fellow countryman and containing a few crossover cuts, the album is dated by its use of synthesizer and programming. The excellent Mar Azul (1991 Lusafrica) followed. Its title cut is like a dark, tropical dirge and contains the paean to her homeland “Cabo Verde.” The album included fellow Cabo Verdean cavaquinho (four-stringed Portuguese mandolin) maestro Bau, as well as piano, guitar, and clarinet, establishing the acoustic template of her sound for which she would become so well known. Da Silva would continue a long and fruitful relationship with Évora, producing all of her records and releasing them on his Lusafrica label in France while licensing them to various other larger record companies.
When Miss Perfumado (1992 Melodíe) was released, Évora vaulted to an even higher stratus of fame as the record took hold far and wide and received universal critical praise. The title track and “Saudade” resonated, capturing the essence of the morna’s sweet melancholy, while the slightly more upbeat “Angola,” with it’s exuberant beer hall piano and punctuating hand claps, reached the broader Afro-pop audience. Firmly established in Europe, she mounted her first tour of the US in 1995 playing to enthusiastic audiences in sold-out venues. Her acoustic, string-based music attracted a diverse audience ranging from fellow Portuguese-speaking exile communities, to folk music enthusiasts, and world pop fans.
More success followed, and a deal with Nonesuch records led to the US release of 1995’s simply titled Césaria, which employed the same basic guitar, mandolin and violin instrumentation with occasional accordion. The first cut “Petit Pays” again pays homage to her much missed homeland and became instantly popular with world music aficionados. Cabo Verde (1997 BMG) followed and features an interesting appearance by the young tenor saxophone lion James Carter. For her next project, she recorded partly in Cuba with members of the Buena Vista Social Club, Orquesta Aragón and other luminaries and employed arranger and conductor, Jacques Morelenbaum, famous for his work with Antonio Carlos Jobim. The spectacular result is the more upbeat and lush Café Atlantico (1999 RCA) which blossoms with an Afro-Cuban tinge.
Although well into her fifties, she continued to tour extensively and record, garnering the respect of musicians the world over. For her next recording, São Vicente di longe (Windham Hill), named after her isle home, she employed the services of such world music luminaries as Cuba’s Chucho Valdés on piano, Brazil’s Caetano Veloso on vocals, America’s Bonnie Raitt on vocals, and singer/songwriter Pedro Guerra from the Canary Islands. The large production cast once again included a large number of Cubans, including members of Orquesta Aragón, and she included several tunes sung in Spanish. After numerous accolades and several Grammy nominations her album, Voz d’Amor (2003 RCA), finally won the Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album in 2004. The album starts with a beautiful tune, “Isolada,” written by her uncle, B. Leza (a play on belleza, or beauty), whose tunes she has recorded since the beginning of her career. “Velocidade,” written by Luis Morais, uses the more up-tempo coladeira song form and is notable for its use of the sweetly nostalgic clarinet.
For her most recent recording, Rogamar (2006 RCA), she had the luxury of recording in her hometown of Mindelo on the Cabo Verde island of São Vicente. The title, translated as “praying to the sea,” sets the theme explored in the title cut which invokes Santa Barbara, otherwise known as the African deity, Changó. “Avenida Marginal” picks up the pace for a walk down the boulevard with chirpy flute, “Africa Nossa” bubbles with Sengalese percussion and guest vocalist Ismaël Lo gives a soulful performance in Wolof. “Travessa de Peixeira” (In Fishwife’s Ally) reminds one of the exuberant music of Northeast Brazil and “Mar Nha Confidente” (The Sea is my Confidant) uses great waves of orchestral strings to maximum effect. Employing a skillful range of musical elements, textures, and moods, she continues to set the standard for sophistication in world music.
A stout woman who sings barefoot, smokes and drinks whisky on stage, she is an unlikely, albeit artistically worthy, diva. Her talent matched to good songs, backed by great musicians, and enhanced by a producer with an expansive musical vision, have made her a phenomenal success. She brought a previously obscure musical form, morna, to the world stage and will stand out historically as the greatest cultural ambassador ever to emerge from the small islands of Cabo Verde. Her sweet voice drips with a melancholic honey that sticks with you.