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| Cesária Évora, R.I.P. |
I'm trying to remember exactly when I fell in love with Cape Verdean music. I think it was around 2006? I know it began with (the greatly missed) Cesaria Évora. The first time I heard her voice was on the soundtrack to Great Expectations. She was crooning a lovely rendition of 'Bésame Mucho' but that was in Spanish. I didn't know who she was or where she was from. A few years later I found myself listening to one of her albums
São Vicente di Longe and I wasn't quite sure what to make of what I was hearing. The music and the language it was sung in were both new and vaguely familiar. As I educated myself on Cape Verde, it's creolized language and culture and its multi-faceted music, I grew to love it. Musically, the archipelago has so much to offer. Literally dozens of genres exist in this tiny space. The
Morna, a down-tempo genre, recalls the ebb and flow of the tide on a desolate shore. The
Batuku, with it's syncopated poly-rhythms, points an arrow straight to Cape Verde's neighbours in West Africa. Between these two poles lie a myriad of genres that belie Cape Verde location between three continents.
Thematically, traditional Cape Verdean music covers various themes that recur int he lives of the Cape Verdean people. Rain comes up a lot. The archipelago's history is peppered with devastating droughts. No wonder songs address the rain like a lost lamented love or an old friend welcomed home. The ocean surrounding the islands figures prominently in these songs as well. Ever present, Cape Verdean singers often address the waters around them directly as if they were some inscrutable entity. Cape Verde was, and continues to be an emigrant culture and so its songs are full of yearning for far-away loved ones.
I actually saw Cesaria Évora in Concert in 2008. It was glorious to see her in the flesh (albeit from several rows away). Even then, she seemed fragile. There was chair and a small table with a glass of water on stage with her. She would sit down after every second or third song to catch her bearings. Of course, she was without shoes, thus the name "the Barefoot Diva". Whatever health issues she had, she nailed every performance of every song. Her voice is often compared to Billie Holiday's and that is a well-earned complement but there's more to it than that. This woman literally put her country on the map. I can't, off the top of my head, think of any recording artist that contributed to their own country's profile the way Cesária Évora did. To me she is the perfect answer to anyone who doubts the relevance of culture.
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| Mayra Andrade |
It her footsteps have followed a generation of brilliant artists, many of whom I adore: Simentera, Lura, Sara Tavares and Mayra Andrade. Many of Cesaria's contemporaries and collaborators have also taken root in my playlist like Tito Paris and Teofilo Chantre amongst others. We may have lost the Barefoot Diva but we will never forget her nor shall we allow her to be forgotten. Her legacy is truly precious and all we can do is listen to the recordings she left behind and be grateful that she got to walk this Earth in her bare feet in the first place.
