Friday, February 1, 2008

Cesaria Evora - 'Morna', the Music of Cape Verde

Cesaria Evora is from the former slave port of Cape Verde, an island off the coast of Senegal. A singer of Creole-Portuguese morna, a soulful, nostalgic and melancholic genre that fuses Latin jazz and Afro beats with traces of Portuguese fado and Brazilian modinha (ballads). Music of loving, longing and departure.



She began singing barefoot in bars in her island home, gave up performing to support her family for ten years and finally gained international recognition later in life, a success that proceeded from concerts in Paris in 1988. Winning a Grammy - as though the ultimate accolade.

Now in her seventies, Cesaria's visiting Sydney for concerts in March, 2008. Yippie!!!
Posted by at
Labels: ,

4 comments:

  1. AntipodeanPtFebruary 1, 2008 at 11:36 PM

    Isn't she the Greatest? I so love her, as I do most lusophone music, you have a sublime and impeccable taste, Sir ;-) Yes, I'm "covering" Joni Mitchell as well. I do have all of her albums (in vinyl, how sad is that? - actually, they sound magnificent) up to 1989, and most of her work since on downloaded masterpieces I'm sure didn't cost me a thing (Sorry, Joni - for the inadvertent rhyme and for possiblyhaving robbed you of $20 worth of intelectual copyright - still think "Blue" is by far the best record my decade of birth ever saw, btw... I am in love with "River" and "A Case Of You". Have been for years...) - so... Thanks for flawless taste in guys being equal to flawless taste in music. That's all I'm saying, really. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. nickwallacesmithFebruary 2, 2008 at 1:03 AM

    hey antipodeanpt. thanks for the comment. actually i thought having vinyl might have become fabulously retro by now. maybe not yet. i've been replacing everything by CD/iTune download. i'm a bit of a newbie with some of joni's older stuff tho i do remember it. cesaria has been a long long love. i chose 'Mar de Canal' cos it was not perhaps so well known and the video gives people more of a sense of her. glad to know i have a soul mate out there! be in touch again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. GregFebruary 2, 2008 at 2:28 PM

    Although I really don't even know about that type of music, I have to admit it has a relaxing soulful sound to it. Sad to think that area used to be a slave port at one time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. nickwallacesmithFebruary 2, 2008 at 5:13 PM

    hey greg, it has a haunting quality that i find you really get addicted to - and it's compelling when you are in the right mood for it. she did a song called 'petits pays' which is more 'famous', but i thought everyone might know it. maybe i'll post it - the visuals are not as good.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)