Twenty years ago, while in her early forties, Cape Verdean vocalist Cesaria Evora returned to the stage after a performing hiatus of nearly two decades, during which time she raised her family. Within a few years, in 1988, she was lured from her Portuguese/Creole-speaking island home off the western coast of Africa to Paris to record her breakthrough album. La Diva aux pieds nus (translated as The Barefoot Diva, due to her penchant for performing barefooted) proved to be a revelation to listeners. Soon she captivated audiences first in France, then throughout the rest of Europe.
Ten years ago, Evora was finally introduced to the U.S., enthralling American listeners with her honey-toned and soft-burred voice. Today, as a Grammy award winner and one of the world’s most recognizable and sublime singers, her discography comprises ten studio recordings, two best-of albums and a remix collection.
Her new album, Rogamar (praise the sea, pray to the sea) - is a celebration of the sea, almost an incantation, from the opening track “Sombras di Distino” (Shadows of Destiny a morna composed by Manuel de Novas), to Teofilo Chantre’s “Vaga Lenta” (Slow Wave) which closes the album on a note of hope. For the sea haunts the collective Cape Verdean imagination. While holding the promise of a better life on distant shores, it is also merciless as it parts lovers or breaks up families. Poets sing the blue sea - Mar Azul - as seen from the Avenida Marginal along the bay of Mindelo, but seamen fear the dangerous coasts more than the high sea. Rogamar tells of the perilous crossing from São Vicente to Sant’Anton, on a typical insular Sanjon (Saint John) rhythm. Recorded in Mindelo, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, the album is produced by pianist Fernando Andrade, who has been accompanying Cesaria on stage since 1999.
U.S. audiences were introduced to Evora in the mid ‘90s. She was an immediate hit. Her 1995 album Cesaria Evora was nominated for a Grammy, and she embarked on her first North American tour. Her New York City date at The Bottom Line attracted such curious noteworthies as Madonna, David Byrne and Branford Marsalis. Soon, earlier albums released in France were reissued in the U.S. for the first time, and she became a concert-hall favorite.
Garnering several gold records and a total of six Grammy nominations, Evora has been heralded as a rare original whose music is both heartfelt and transcendent. The New York Times has characterized her music as having “melodies as graceful and knowing as the Mona Lisa’s smile.” Critic Renée Graham, noting that Evora has a “beguiling voice of longing, cured by cognac, cigarettes and melancholy,” has written in the Boston Globe: “Her voice doesn’t come at you all at once. She will not bellow songs for effect or attention, nor will she attack the notes as if they owe her money. It is a subtle, unlabored sound, dramatic but not flamboyant, which washes over listeners slowly but indelibly.”
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