Cesaria Evora and Tcheka

Singer who paved the way for other Cape Verdean artists will share the stage with guitarist who's crafted a distinctive sound

- By Andrew Gilbert

Cape Verde may be cursed with an inhospitable climate, a history of desultory colonial administration and a poverty-driven diaspora so extensive that more than half its population lives abroad, but the island nation off the coast of Senegal is fortunate indeed to claim vocalist Cesaria Evora.

Since moving to Paris in the late 1980s, Evora has turned the world onto the ravishing melancholy of morna, the plaintive, undulating Cape Verdean ballad form that captures the longing of a widely scattered people. On "Mar Azul," a signature piece from her classic 1991 album of the same name, she sings a verse in Kriolu that evokes the music's bittersweet, nostalgic spirit: "Oh sea, oh blue sea/ Let me return to São Vicente/ My little home/ To see my mother again/ And kiss my sweetheart."

Since becoming an international star, Evora has doggedly sought to share the spotlight, taking it upon herself to introduce the world to a rising generation of Cape Verdean musicians, whether they hail from her island of São Vicente, Paris, Lisbon or Los Angeles.

"I began my career late," Evora says in Kriolu from Paris, speaking through a translator. "I was singing in my country until I was 45, and only recorded when I went to Portugal in 1985. Now we have many singers, both women and men, and I think our music is in good hands. Since the colonial period, when we leave the country, we have taken our music and our roots with us."

When Evora performs at Masonic Auditorium on Saturday as part of SFJazz's Spring Season, she'll be introducing a young Cape Verdean artist unknown in the States, the singer, songwriter and guitarist Tcheka. Hailing from the island of Santiago, where West African influences are stronger than on Cape Verde's nine other islands, Tcheka has developed a highly distinctive sound, drawing on styles like batuque, which was once banned by the Portuguese colonial authorities.

"Before independence, people were forbidden to play this kind of rhythm, and they used to play it hiding or you could go to prison," Tcheka, 33, says from Santiago, speaking through a translator. "I use a mixture of batuque and other African styles like tabanca. I'm not the first songwriter to use these rhythms, but I created my own style, and the way I play it is my own."

Tcheka first gained notice in 2002, when the Lisbon-based Cape Verdean singer Lura, another artist championed by Evora, recorded two of his songs on her album "In Love." In particular, his tune "Ma'n ba dès bès kumida dâ" ("Maybe This Time We'll Have Food") about Cape Verde's reliance on intermittent rains to avoid famine, announced the arrival of a promising new talent. With an assist from Evora, Tcheka is poised to join the wave of talented Cape Verdean singers who are taking on the world, such as Sara Tavares, Maria de Barros, Lura and Fantcha.

"Cesaria is the mother of us all," Tcheka says. "She was the one who started to show Cape Verde's culture to the world. She was the one who opened the door wide for Cape Verdean culture."