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Pasadena Weekly, Feature >>
By Bliss
There's nothing like having beer-swigging Swiss gearheads chomping on barbecued chicken, salivating over chopped tops and American hot rod kitsch with your equally car-besotted beau to refresh your global perspectives.
Spin some African music on the stereo, and those perspectives really get realigned.
That was the scenario that unexpectedly played out in my backyard last weekend. The Swiss friends in question, all but one of whom speak fluent, slang-savvy English, live in and around Geneva, Switzerland.
They'd journeyed to California to attend a series of car exhibitions where I — born, raised and very well educated in America — would have been completely unable to maintain a relevant conversation due to my inability to grasp the difference between a wingnut and a distributor cap. I got lost just following their enthusiastic exchanges about midcentury Cadillacs.
But when I started playing music by Malian artists Tinariwen and Issa Bagayogo and Cape Verdean morna goddess Cesaria Evora, eyes widened and conversation was suddenly peppered with exclamations of recognition.
African music may be the province of select public-radio shows in America, but overseas it's accepted in the mainstream. (Though Tinariwen's tour opening concerts for the Rolling Stones this summer should amplify their star wattage here considerably.)
The Swiss guests drew pleased — and well-informed — connections between Tinariwen and Bagayogo and Malian desert-blues progenitor Ali Farka Touré as well as LA guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder and blues legend John Lee Hooker (whose name assumes charming cadences when uttered with a heavy French accent). When Evora's lushly romantic “Rogamar” began to play, no one asked — as stateside friends typically do — “Where's that from?”
To be fair, Evora's not unknown here: NPR, celebrity fans and a Grammy have boosted the image of the plump, barefoot diva who sang her way to success from the tiny island nation off the coast of Senegal whose stunning natural beauty is matched by its grinding poverty. Cape Verdean music's characterized by seaside imagery and seemingly contradictory impulses: hope for a better life outside, and romantic yearnings for home.
Evora's been an international star since the early-1990s release of “Mar Azul” and “Miss Perfumado,” which birthed her signature hit “Sodade.”
“Rogamar” is her 10th album. Released last year, it's less sweeping in orchestral texture than 1999's “Café Atlantico” or 2003's “Voz D'Amor” but more hopeful; like great jazz and blues divas, as the rich, velvety texture of her voice wears slightly with age, Evora compensates with refined emphasis on simplicity and phrasing. She remains true to the morna and coladeira styles of her heritage, whose bluesy flavor and unmistakable emotionality transcend barriers of geography, language and culture.
Our Swiss guests already understood Evora. All of a sudden, the world seemed a bit smaller, and we understood one another better too 06/07/07 >> go there
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