Cesaria Evora
"São Vicente Di Longe"

The Barefoot Diva, that's what they called who was effectively the most accredited heir to the great female jazz-blues singers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday, from Nina Simone to Miriam Makeba, and just like the latter, Evora worked in the ethnic genre, Mornas and Coladeiras, typical genres of her beloved Cape Verde Islands. This was her most international, luxurious, and also one of the most beautiful CDs ever. It was 2001 and when I bought it, I knew I was on safe ground because a couple of years earlier at a newsstand, I had picked up a live CD of hers, included in the publication "Voci in Viaggio," and I instantly fell in love with that voice marked by great simplicity, yet charged with a remarkable evocative power. These 15 tracks are all of good quality, but some are superlative, "Negue," a remake of a piece made famous by Maria Bethânia, just voice and piano played by the great Chucho Valdes, "Dor di Amor" that sticks in your head and never leaves because of the endorphins it makes you produce, and "Crepuscular Solidao" sung in a duet with Bonnie Raitt, are the highlights of an album that also features Caetano Veloso in "Regresso" and Pedro Guerra in "Tempo y silencio." In this album, Evora sings not only in Cape Verdean Creole but also in Spanish and Portuguese. For those who love border music and timeless voices, it could become a great travel companion.