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Top Comments: Césaria Évora Tribute [1]
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Date: 2025-02-27
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Monday night this week, Hubby was surfing the internet when, to his surprise, he landed on a page announcing that the next evening there would be a concert of Cape Verdean musicians paying tribute to singer Césaria Évora on the campus of the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Évora was a Cape Verdean singer who, nearly single-handedly, brought Cape Verdean music to the attention of the rest of the world. She was known as ”the barefoot diva” (la diva aux pieds nus) because she always performed barefoot, in solidarity with the poor people of the world. Hubby and I saw her perform live in Los Angeles about 30 years ago, and I wrote a diary about her after she passed away in 2011.
Cape Verde is a group of small islands off the east coast of Africa, a Portuguese colony that became independent in 1975. Not surprisingly, Cape Verdeans speak Portuguese. Myself, I don’t understand Portuguese, but appreciation of music doesn’t require that you understand the words of a song (though it helps if you can). The music of these islands fits squarely in the tradition of Afro-Latin music, but it is distinct from salsa, or Brazilian music, or any other sub-category. Whether their songs are upbeat or slow, the music has an undeniably mournful quality.
So, Hubby managed to score a couple of tickets to this concert, and after getting lost on the UCSD campus (large and confusing, in the dark, plus it was foggy), we got there well before the concert started. There were a significant number of Cape Verdeans in the audience. we saw an Anglo guy wore a t-shirt that said “I’m not afraid of anything. I married a Cape Verdean.”
The musicians for Tuesday night’s concert were called the Césaria Évora Orchestra. There were four vocalists who were, in order of appearance, Lucibela, Elida Almeida, Téofilo Chantre, and Ceuzany. I had never heard of any of them before, but they put on a terrific show featuring Césaria Évora’s most recognizable songs. The only clip I can find Tuesday’s concert is of the finale, the song “Carnaval de Sao Vicente.” In this clip, the singers, from left to right, were Elida Almeida, Téofilo Chantre, Lucibela, and Ceuzany.
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And here’s Cesaria Evora’s original recording of that song:
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Toward the end of the concert, the singer Ceuzany, before singing the song “Sodade” (a word whose proper translation requires a paragraph, but briefly, it’s a combination of loneliness and homesickness), introduced the man who write the song, who was sitting in the audience just two rows ahead of us! (We had really good seats.) He was ancient but very dignified. Here is a live recording of Césaria singing “Sodade”:
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Because I can’t resist, I’l include a couple more songs. First, here’s “Angola”:
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And I’ll end with “Petit Pays,” which is the first song of hers I heard more than 30 years ago.
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Comments are below the fold.
Top Comments (February 27, 2024):
From twingrace: Mercy Ormont's comment addressing the difference between "being polite" and "being strategic" should be essential reading for any of us who want to be effective in working to save our country, our families, and possibly our own lives. From ChurchofBruce’s recommended post I don’t know if it’s me, but this place looks very delusional lately. Top Mojo (February 26, 2024):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
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