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Alameda Times-Star, Feature and Concert Preview >>
'Barefoot Diva' Cesaria Evora steps into Bay Area
- By Jim Harrington
THE CAPE VERDEAN musical genre known as morna can be likened to many styles. Including Brazilian modlnha and Portuguese fade but Its closest coustn may well be the blues.
Morna Is a moumfiil-yethopeful genre, usually sung In Cape Verdean Creole, and its best-known voice belongs to Cesaria Evora.
The 65-year-old folk singer will share the music of her native Cape Verde with local fans during two Bay Area performances this weekend. She Is set to appear Saturday at the Nob Hill Masonic Center, as part of SFJAZZ's Spring Season, and Sunday at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.
During a recent interview, with Evora's assistant, Julleta Mala Lopes, interpreting, the vocalist spoke of her most recent CD, 2006's "R(^amar." For starters, she e}q)lained why she chose the title, which can be loosely translated as "pray to the sea."
The sea Is very important to the life of each Cape Verdean," Evora said from a tour stop in Portugal. "In each record, I always have a song about the sea. We cannot live without the sea." Ironically, it was the sea that might have kept Evotsl from achieving intemationai renown much earlier in her career.
The Republic of Cape Verde consists of a smaU cluster of islands off the westem coast of Africa. For generations, many local musicians entertained fellow Cape Verdeans and the occasional batch of totirists, but otherwise operated in isolation from the rest of the world.
Evora was a member of .that club for much af her career.
The vocalist — known as the orignal "Barefoot Diva" for her penchant for taking the stage without shoes — began performing when she was a teenager. She decided to get serious about singing after receiving sound advice from her heartthrob at the time.
"I started when I was 16 years old with a ^oup of young people who were playing guitars. I came to them and I started to sing," she said. "One of them, who was my boyfriend, said, "Sing harder, because you have a nice voice.' I went on singing and I never stopped."
Well, that's not exactly accurate. She quickly rose to stardom in her native land in the late '60s, then announced midway through the next decade that she was giving up the stage. The early retirement was partly due to the fact that Evora — although still quite popular in Cape Verde — couldn't translate fame into fortime while operating solely as a local attraction.
She remained silent for 10 years. Then, in 1985, she decided to give the music business another try and left Cape Verde to record In Europe. The inliial breakthrough came in 1988 when Evora traveled to Paris.
The vocalist followed with 1992's "Miss Perfumado," which garnered a Grammy nomination and pushed Evora to Intemationai stardom. Suddenly she was a hot commodity on the world-music stage and boasted fans such as David Byrne, Bonnie Raitt and Ed Bradley.
Most prominently. Madonna became enamored of the Cape Verdean folk star. In fact, Evora was set to sing at Madonna's birthday party at Gianni Versace's oceanfront estate in Miami in 1997. The miu-der of the fashion mogul that same year, however, put an end to the party planning. Madonna also ajsked Evora to perform at her wedding m 2000, but plans leventuaUy fjcll fhrough.
It remains ^in?utual-admlraflon society between the Bareifoot blva and the Material Girl. > flWa*a fan of Madonna
when I was not known, in Cape Verde," Evora said. "I like to see Madonna onstage, you know?"
These days, Evora is more popular than ever. Her concerts draw capacity crowds and she continues to win critical acclaim for her CDs. She sounds happy — even speaking from the background, with Lopes translating her words on the phone — and that's also how she looks on the cover of "Rogamar." Indeed, the absolute joy she radiates on the album-cover shot doesn't carry a hint of the mournful side of her ¦signature morna music.
"My musicians have all these stones and I am always lau^iing when I am with them. That's why they took this picture and put it in this albiun," Evora explained. "On the other side, (Cape Verdeans) are Joyful people — we are not sad people as other people say. No. We are people from a poor land, but we are Joyful."
06/08/07
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