Search - Cesaria Evora :: Cabo Verde

Like Ireland, Cape Verde is a former island colony which has perennially lost its young people to emigration. And like its Irish counterpart, Verdean music is filled with songs of separation and homesickness. Cesaria Evora, the greatest Verdean singer of her generation, includes several of those songs on Cabo Verde, her sixth album overall but only her second release in the U.S. With a population descended from former Portuguese colonialists and former African slaves, Cape Verde closely resembles Brazil and has produced a music with similar rippling syncopation and light, sensual vocals, though the Verdean sound is marked by the breezy lilt characteristic of islands. But when Evora sings mournfully of a "Partida" (departure) that will take her love far away, anyone who has ever experienced such a separation will recognize the mix of pain and affection in her voice. That voice is a very special instrument, for it glides gracefully over the supple beat even as it resounds deeply in Evora's lower range and fills up with warm, enveloping resonance. She is backed by a small, all-acoustic Verdean combo led by the ukulele-like, four-string cavaquinho. American jazz great James Carter plays tenor saxophone on "Coragem Irmon," but Evora has no problem matching his thick, buttery tone. --Geoffrey Himes