Her songs are like a light sea breeze on a quiet evening coast at sunset: on the one hand, simple human happiness, and on the other, infinitely bright sadness. She sings songs of paradise, where a person has returned, knowing that at any second he can lose him ... African Edith Piaf, a 62-year-old grandmother from the Cape Verde Islands, sang all her life in smoky port bars. And she began her professional career only at the age of 47. Income from the concert activities of Evora formed almost half of the treasury of her homeland - Cape Verde. Her manner of performing the morna of drawn-out and melodic romantic ballads in Creole drove the world's music connoisseurs crazy.
Evora was born on August 27, 1941 in the port city of Mindelo (Cape Verde) in the family of a musician. From the age of 17, Cesaria began performing in the bars of Mindelo, performing mainly the works of the poet and composer B. Lez, whose mornas have become classics of the archipelago. In 1975, after a long struggle for independence from Portugal, a coup takes place in the archipelago and a pro-Marxist regime is established. The country is in a difficult economic situation. Cesaria can no longer make a living by singing. Unrecognized, she falls silent for ten for long years. She finds solace in cognac and cigars. In 1985, Cesaria gives in to the requests of her friends and participates in the recording of a collective album of the best Morne performers from Cape Verde. In 1986, her first solo album was recorded in Lisbon. It is followed by many concerts in different countries among the diaspora of Cape Verde. A momentous meeting soon followed with José Da Silva, Cesaria's compatriot living in France. fan musical culture of his people, José works as a lineman at night and devotes his days to music. It is he who takes her career into his own hands, as a result of which her first French album, Barefoot Diva, is released in the same year. This album begins her collaboration with Lusafrica, which continues to this day.
In 1990, Cesaria's second album, The Fate of a Beauty, was released. This album doesn't make much noise, but Cesaria's fame is rising among the Cape Verdean diaspora. In 1991, Cesaria will be successful at the Angouleme festival. She was noticed by the French press. And, although her performance in Paris on June 2, 1991 gathers only compatriots, Liberation writes about her in enthusiastic terms. Cesaria celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with the release of a new album, which Le Monde rave about. The CD plays on the radio solo concert December 14 is completely sold out, this time its audience consists almost exclusively of Europeans. In 1992, the album "Miss Perfumado" was recorded, for which Cesaria received the Golden Disc, becoming the second African woman after Miriam Makeba to achieve such success.
1993 is the year of Cesaria's triumph in France. The press choke with delight and savor the details of her life, her exorbitant passion for smoking and cognac, her hard life to Mindela at the end of the world, calling her the African Billie Holiday. This year, the first concerts are held in Olympia, all of Paris is at her feet. This whole year is on tour: Portugal, Canada, Spain, Japan ...
In 1994, the discovery of Brazil and the meeting of Cesaria with the Brazilian Caetano Veloso, who had a great influence on her work. Again, countless tours around the world ... And in almost every country best singers ask her to sing with them. Cesaria is always willing to experiment: her partners are Rita Mitsuko, Catherine Ringer, Cayetano Veloso and others. In the same year, the collection "The Most Beautiful Morns of Cesaria" was published. This year is significant in that Cesaria conquers her passion for cognac, a companion of her ten-year depression. In 1995 - the American tour of Cesaria. Her album "Cesaria", which has already received a Golden Disc in France, becomes a hit in the USA (150 thousand copies sold). Her concerts are taken by storm. The American show elite breaks into her concert. In the same year she recorded the Ausencia tango for Emir Kusturica's film "Underground". Cesaria tours a lot. In 1997, the new album "Cape Verde" was released, countless tours, including the USA, where this disc was nominated for the Grammy-Awards. In 1998, a new compilation "The Best of Cesaria Évora", which includes all her best songs, as well as Besame mucho in Spanish, previously recorded for the film "Great Expectations". She sang, it would seem, already completely overplayed hit - and sang as if before the author of this song, the Mexican Consuelo Velasquez, no one had put the words “kiss me tighter” to music. And again, Cesaria travels around the world with concerts.
In 1999, her new album "Atlantico Cafe" was released, first in France, then replicated around the world. The birthplace of Cesaria, the port of Mindelo and the islands of San Vincente became the main themes of the album. Café Atlantico, the collective name for the countless bars in Mindelo where Cesaria once sang, sells over 600,000 copies. This disc brings her Victoire dela musique - the highest recognition of musical success in France.
In 2001, Cesaria's album "San Vincente from afar" appears - the quintessence creative way Cesaria, in which she is established not only as a professional of the highest standard, but also as a force that can unite the best musicians and performers around herself. In July 2002, the double album "Anthology" was released. Now in Paris, at her headquarters, work is underway on the next album. Grandmother Cesaria, who lost her three husbands, is tired of touring (age and illness make you aware) and is going to spend more time in the studios, recording discs. In Mindelo, as in most port cities, nightlife was in full swing, music was playing everywhere - in clubs, on the streets, on the beach. All styles were in vogue: ballads, waltzes, foxtrots, controversy. However, the most popular were considered morna and coladera - slow and rhythmic songs expressing nostalgia, love, sadness and longing.
With a strong and emotional voice most suited to these styles, Cesarea quickly found her niche in musical life Mindelo and thanks to regular and memorable performances soon won the title of "Queen of the Morna". With musicians loyal to her, she moved from club to club, giving concerts and earning a living from the bounty of her fans. However, in the late 1950s, the port began to decline, and when Senegal gained independence from Portugal in 1975, trade in Cape Verde quickly curtailed, and most of the musicians emigrated to other parts of the world. Caesarea Evora decided to stay at home.
The legendary singer from the Cape Verde Islands, Cesaria Evora (port. Cesária Évora; barefoot diva), was born and lived in Mindelo, in Cape Verde, on August 27, 1941, died on December 17, 2011. A couple of months before her death, the singer stopped creative activity. Cesaria's life has been difficult since childhood. Her hometown was a port, which housed quite a lot of all sorts of smoky pubs. For a glass, another, she told in song form about the hard life of her people. Thanks to her ballads, Cesaria was already a symbol for the local population. But only at the age of 45, Evora began her path to conquest musical Olympus. At this time, the singer released her first solo album. The album was called "La Diva aux Pieds Nus" ("Barefoot Diva") and was a huge success, which does not leave Cesaria to this day. This album begins her collaboration with Lusafrica, which continues to this day.Initially, the singer performed songs in the style of "morna" (port. morna) - a genre traditional for the Cape Verde Islands, as well as "fado" (port. fado), African songs.
Cesaria Evora sings in Cape Verdian Creole, a dialect of the Portuguese language. Acoustic framing of the voice is the piano, ukulele, accordion, violins and clarinet. Évora invariably enters the stage barefoot - a symbolic tribute to the poverty in which her countrymen lived (and continue to live) in the Cape Verde Islands.
In early 1980 she began touring Europe. World fame came to Cesaria in 1988. She also deservedly is the owner of the honorary French award “Victoire de la Musique” and has been nominated for Grammy 5 times. Cesaria Evora actively uses in her vocabulary such a wonderful word saujaji, which translates as a bright feeling of homesickness.
Over the past 15 years, Cesaria Evora has received many music awards, several gold discs, and has toured all over the world, including Russia. She earned more than 50 million and donated most of her fees to the education of the children of the Cape Verde Islands.
February 6, 2008 Cesaria Evora was awarded the French Legion of Honor.
Despite her age, Cesaria sang as inspirationally as she did 50 years ago. Hearing her voice, the listener freezes and is ready to endlessly enjoy her eternal, extraordinarily colorful, beautiful and wise songs, like nature itself.
Cesaria Evora died on December 17, 2011 in Cape Verde at the age of 70.
Death was due to heart failure and respiratory problems.
"I know what it's like to live below the poverty line,
and rejoice when my creativity can
help someone." (Cesaria Evora).
The life of Cesaria Evora in numbers:
- Cesaria Evora (port. Cesária Évora) was born on August 27, 1941 in Mindelo, Cape Verde.
- 1958 - the beginning of the singer's career.
- 1984 - Recording of Cesaria's first solo album in Lisbon.
- 1988 - the beginning of cooperation with the recording company Lusafrica, France.
- Albums: 1988 - La Diva Aux Pieds Nus, 1990 - Distino de Belita, 1991 - Mar Azul, 1992 - Miss Perfumado, 1994 - Sodade, 1995 - Cesária, 1997 - Cabo Verde, 1999 - Café Atlantico, 1999 - Mar Azul, 1999 - Cesaria Evora Remixes, 1999 - Best Of, 2001 - São Vicente di Longe, 2002 - In Bloom II, 2003 - Voz d'Amor, 2003 - All Gold Of The World, 2006 - Rogamar.
- Cesaria Evora is the owner of the French music award - "Victoire de la Musique".
- She has been nominated for a Grammy five times and won the award twice.
- The first performance of the singer in Russia took place in April 2002 at the Anatoly Vasiliev Theater on Sretenka. The second concert took place in May of the same year at the Maly Theatre.
- February 6, 2008 Cesaria Evora was awarded the French Legion of Honor.
- Cesaria Evora passed away on December 17, 2011.
Cape Verde? This sunny tourist paradise is located on the Cape Verde Islands, which lie in the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean, not far from the coast of Africa.
The originality of the inhabitants of Cape Verde is due to the fusion of African and European blood, they absorbed all the best that such a cocktail can only provide, absorbing the gold of the rays of the sun and the lingering melodies of the sea along the way.
I was born in such an amazing place Cesaria Evora
, in the sultry August of 1941, sadly memorable for us.
The girl grew up in the atmosphere of the resort port of Mindelo, where a whole series of numerous cafes lined the promenade, and the nights were as busy as the days. When the sun went down, and the coolness of the sea brought relief to the scorched streets, the air was filled with Her Majesty's music. In addition to the musical styles known to us, the inhabitants have always loved to listen to ancient folklore - morna, fado and coladera. Songs with a slow motive, in which sadness, nostalgia, melancholy and, of course, love come through.
As a true resident of her country, Cesaria she loved these songs and sang them so soulfully that she quickly won the title of "Queen of the Morna". She started her career at the age of 17. And soon in the town of Mindelo there was not a single club left, not a single stage where the singer would not perform. Her singing was very memorable, a deep and strong voice reached the most hidden places in the souls of the listeners, opened their hearts, made them worry - to cry and love, yearn and be grateful.
This amazing woman sang, tried to build her personal happiness (she has three children from three marriages), and time passed. Youth is far behind and already, it would seem, you need to settle down - do a profitable business, raise children, stop drinking and smoking, restrict access to your home to numerous friends ... But this is not about our heroine. She remained true to herself in everything.
A young man named Jose da Silva was able to convince Evora to come to Paris for a short while to record his record. And the album was released in 1988 under the name "La Diva aux Pieds Nus" (The Barefoot Diva). The matter did not end there. In 1990, the album "Distino di Belita" (The Fate of a Beauty) was released, and in 1991 - "Mar Azul" (Azure Sea).
It would seem that no one will listen to vocals famous singer aged, but in another language that is not understandable to everyone, except for immigrants from Cape Verde and a few Portuguese ... However, we can reason like that, but this is what actually happened.
Loyalty to tunes home country singled out the singer from the mass of pop stars in Europe, her voice - smooth and emotional, free and strong - captured hearts without a fight, the words did not need to be translated. After all, feelings are international, and a person's craving for pure, deep, natural always lives somewhere in every soul.
In 1992, the album "Miss Perfumado" (Perfumed Girl) triumphantly walked throughout Europe, only in France, more than 200 thousand copies were sold. All over the world, people began to listen to the morna en masse, as they once massively danced lambada and macarena.
At Cesaria there was a rare talent - in her voice there is a “feeling of bright homesickness” - “saudaji”. This aching feeling is familiar to everyone - we can yearn for childhood, mother, something dear and painfully familiar, which cannot be returned.
AND Cesaria continued to amaze the audience. She went on stage barefoot as a sign of solidarity with poor African women, even in the halls of northern countries and Russia. Her stage outfits were bought in ordinary stores, by no means boutiques. She did not participate in secular life and politics, did not appear at fashionable parties, because after the tour she always returned home to Mindelo.
She had only two, moreover, inexpensive cars. And she lived in the house of her parents - the house of her childhood.
The singer transferred the lion's share of the millions of dollars earned to the budget of Cape Verde. All Primary Education whole country financed entirely from her fees! What a tangible love for the Motherland! Imagine, inherited by sweat and blood - and others. Cesaria knew that her country was poor and needed it. When fate has given you so many opportunities and means, and for real happiness you don’t need much - just friends, a home, a favorite job and a sense of your need, it’s not difficult to share. The joy that your money will help other people learn, determine a better future for them, more than covers all the sacrifices.
In order for you to assess the scale of the transferred amounts, I will say, quoting the Izvestia newspaper, that "In percentage terms, Evora's deductions to the budget of his native country are equal to the income that Russia receives from the sale of oil." What is it?
Like a real African, Cesaria loved to collect gold. Gold earrings, chains, rings with warm sun drops have always complemented Evora's outfit on stage. Most best friends girls, "diamonds", as well as all other precious and semi-precious stones, remained unclaimed, like cold glass. Cesaria's opinion: “Gold is money that is always with you. And diamonds are wasted money.”
The legendary singer passed away at the age of 70 in her home country, three months after the official completion creative career. IN last years it was more and more difficult to perform, but neither a stroke nor a heart operation made Evora give up what was the meaning of her life. She still went out barefoot and gave the audience her magical songs.
Today the name of Cesaria Evora is known all over the world. She was awarded the American Grammy, the French Vitoire de la Music, the Order of the Legion of Honor ... And in her homeland, grateful compatriots wanted to erect a monument to her during her lifetime. But Cesaria was against it, saying that it would be better to give the money to the children.
What can we learn from the story of the African aunt Tsise? You need to be true to yourself, to your Motherland, to help others and to do what interests you, what you do best. This is the whole recipe for success. Take note of it, and may happiness and love be with you!
Cesaria Evora is a huge black diamond in a small impoverished country. The tiny state of Cape Verde, located on the Cape Verde Islands closer to the western coast of Senegal, was a colony of Portugal until 1975. Here, in the family of a cook and a musician, a barefoot singer was born.
Father, kind and simple man was destined too short life. The girl was not even 7 years old when he died. There were, as they say, seven children in the family in the shops. In order to somehow alleviate her plight, her mother sent Cesar to an orphanage.
Having matured and a little stronger, the girl returned home and began to help her mother. She cleaned, washed, washed, cooked, sang, and furtively glanced at photographs of her father, a musician. What feelings they aroused in her is unknown. However, at the age of 14, to the accompaniment of a ukulele in a port tavern, Cesar sang about love for the first time.
Nature endowed the girl with a strong and unique voice that had a special magical timbre. The audience immediately fell in love with the young singer, and always supported her with thunderous applause.
Mindelo, as befits a port town, was famous for its vibrant nightlife. The doors of bars and clubs were open to all regulars and visiting sailors. The music that sounded on the streets and on the beach enchanted with foxtrots and waltzes, sad lyrical songs and incendiary African melodies.Cesaria's chesty and velvety voice was most suitable for the styles popular at that time - morna and coladera. Yes, and the girl herself liked the slow rhythmic melodies, telling about deep feelings, sadness and longing, love and separation.
The first songs of Cesaria Evora
At the age of 17, Cesaria already had her own group of musicians with whom she performed in clubs, gaining an increasing number of fans and earning a living for herself and her family.Her performances were bright and memorable, she knew how to touch the strings human soul so that very soon she received universal popular recognition and love, and the title of "Queen of the Morna" was the highest award.
In 1975, Portugal granted independence to Senegal, which caused the final curtailment of trade in Cape Verde, which had already begun to fade before that. Most of the musicians emigrated in different directions.
When asked about her barefoot image, Cesaria replied that in this way she shows solidarity with African women and children living below the poverty line. The then-famous singer Bana and the Women's Association of Cape Verde repeatedly invited Cesaria to Lisbon to record.
The first to produce Evora was the famous singer, her countryman Tito Paris. The debut of the solo album took place when the barefoot diva turned 43 years old.
It took a lot of work to convince Cesaria to France. Finally, the singer gave up, and José da Silva took her to Paris to record a solo album. This was the beginning of the collaboration with "Lusafrica".
In 1988, the world heard an album called Diva aux Pieds Nus. Further - work on Distino di Belita (1990), and in 1991 the song collection Mar Azul was released.
The world career of the singer Cesaria Evora
In the early 80s, Cesaria went on a tour of Europe with concerts. in 1988 received world recognition and many fans. Women her age wanted to be like Cesaria and even went barefoot.The release of the fourth solo album "Miss Perfumadu" (1992) made a splash in the world of morna, modinha, fado. Performing Portuguese folk intertwined with blues and jazz in a Creole dialect, Cesaria Evora became a 52-year-old pop star. In France alone, the number of discs sold was 200,000 copies.
The singer was the owner of the Grammy, Victoire de la Musique, as well as the most prestigious award - the Order of the Legion of Honor, presented to her by French Minister of Culture Christie Albanel. Cesar has recorded 18 albums, has repeatedly been on tour in Russia and Ukraine.
Cesaria Evora's personal life
In her personal life, Cesaria did not find her happiness. First love - black-eyed guitarist Eduardo, set sail from his native shore in search of new adventures, leaving the girl in disappointment and pain.Cesaria longed for a long time. She poured out all the sadness and loneliness in songs. There were novels in the life of the singer, but a person who could be constantly nearby, both in trouble and in joy, Cesaria was not destined to meet.
The greatest joy of her personal life was three wonderful children whom she, like her mother at one time, raised alone.
Interesting facts about Cesaria of Evora
World fame brought Cesaria more than $ 50 million. She did not build luxurious mansions and buy villas in Miami. The singer spent all the money on the maintenance of primary education and the healthcare system of her country.Grateful fellow countrymen wanted to erect a monument to Cesar during her lifetime, but she refused to spend money on perpetuating her person, ordering to give it to her children.
Cesaria Evora died exactly at the age of 70, leaving behind not only unique songs and ballads. She left loyalty to her land, love and compassion for people.
Possessing only one language - Creole, not having special education, she proved that success comes when a person sincerely loves his job and remains faithful to him always.
I knew that she was 70 years old, that she was very ill, that she had severe diabetes, that she sang barefoot not out of solidarity with the poor women of Africa, as the mass media like to write, but because no shoes fit on her sick and swollen feet. (in her rider there was a mandatory supply of a wheelchair to the gangway of the plane and that the dressing room was on the same floor as the stage - she could not climb the stairs). I knew that one of her eyes did not see at all, and the other was very bad, that two years ago she had a stroke, and a year ago she had an operation on open heart that in the autumn before the concert in Paris she became ill, and she announced the end of her concert activity. “I just didn’t have any more strength left,” she told reporters. I knew all this, but when I heard about her death on December 17, I almost burst into tears. And my musician friend, drunk, called from Israel and sobbed into the phone for ten minutes.
Why did this clumsy, tastelessly dressed, from head to toe hung with gold trinkets, semi-literate (she practically could neither read nor write), an elderly woman without special vocal abilities, who, moreover, sang casually, inaccurately and indifferently, so impressed everyone? Why for people who are receptive to music, for those who, as the French say, have a “thin palate”, her singing was completely irresistible and was perceived literally as a fact of personal biography? I'll try to say something about it today, but really nothing can be explained here. Sorry for the banality, but the magic of talent and the miracle of art defy any logical explanation.
For starters, I'll play you a song that you all must have heard, and I'll tell you how I heard it for the first time. It was in Paris, in the early spring of 2000. My wife Marisha and I were walking around the city, and at one point she, like any normal woman, naturally wanted to walk around some huge multi-storey department store, and I, like any normal man, with all my heart hating shopping in all its manifestations and realizing that this case could drag on for a long time, I stayed downstairs in a small cafeteria. I really had to sit there for an hour and a half, and all this time the young bartender behind the counter played the same song over and over again on his boombox. And no one got tired of it. And even when Marisha returned, we did not leave right away, but listened to her several more times.
1. Nho antone escaderode
A lot of time has passed since then. During the reporting period, I listened to this song, which I simply called to myself “Antoshka-deroshka”, countless times, but, just getting ready for this evening, I bothered to think about what it actually sings about. Let me tell you, it was very difficult to find out. As you know, Evora sang in the Creole dialect of Portuguese, which even the Portuguese have difficulty understanding. The text in Creole was found on the Internet, even two translations into English and one into French were found after an extremely long search, and all three were quite different from each other. Fortunately, there are very few lyrics in this song. As almost always with Évora, it's a repetitive two verses and a chorus. And if you try to bring the English and French translations to some common denominator, then the song sings something like this: “When I first arrived in Ribeira Grande (this is such a town in Portugal), I had a nice time in one eatery. There were three of us, and we got so drunk on rum punch that we lost control of ourselves and began to walk like a twisted señor Antosh. And it's all. And in the chorus, the name and surname are simply repeated - Antosh Escaderosh. Who this is is not specified in the song.
In general, the lyrics of Evora's songs are a separate story, and we'll talk about them later. But first, for the sake of order, a little biography. Cesaria Evora was born on August 27, 1941 in the city of Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente of the Cape Verde archipelago, which in Russian was more often called the Cape Verde Islands - a Portuguese colony located 600 km west of the coast of Senegal. A little more than 400 thousand people live on these nine inhabited islands today (for comparison: this is about two times less than in the Moscow Northern District).
Her father, who was a musician and played the violin and cello, died early, leaving his wife with seven children. Cesaria recalled her childhood as follows: “We did not starve, we were just very poor, like many in Mindelo. The main income for the family was brought by my brothers, who worked abroad. In addition, we rented out part of the house, and my grandmother kept a garden where she grew watermelons, corn, and beans. Gathering a small crop, we always laid it out in piles and divided it among our neighbors.” Nevertheless, soon Mother Cesaria was forced to give little Sisi to an orphanage. It is in this charitable institution that our heroine first joins music and singing - she sings in the orphanage choir.
From the age of sixteen, Cesaria already sang in the bars of her native Mindela, she sang with pleasure, and everyone around her was very praised. At the same time, she falls in love with a local sailor, Eduardo, who teaches her local songs, many of which were composed by her own uncle, known under the pseudonym B. Leza, and later they fully entered her repertoire. Cesaria quickly found her niche in the musical life of the islands and, thanks to regular and memorable performances, soon won the title of "Queen of the Morna". We will talk about what a morna is. But a real professional career did not work out: no records, no fees ... Two recordings of her radio performances were released in the late 1960s - one in Portugal, the other in the Netherlands, where there were many emigrants from the Islands, but they went unnoticed. Yes, there is still an unhappy personal life and, as a result, very serious problems with alcohol ...
In a word, by the mid-70s, Cesaria completely abandoned music, plunged into the typical worries of a single mother (she has several children from different men, and she has never been married). In addition, in 1975, the Cape Verde Islands gained independence from Portugal, and although, unlike neighboring Angola, this happened without a bloody civil war, did not bring anything good, because a pro-communist government came to power. Under the damned colonialists, the Cape Verde Islands were an extremely poor country, but still in Mindelo, like in most port cities, nightlife was in full swing, everywhere - in clubs, on the streets, on the beach - music was playing. All styles were in vogue: ballads, waltzes, foxtrots, controversy. However, love, and sadness, and funny, humorous, festive pictures - the islanders expressed all this range of feelings and moods in morns and coladeiras - local songs for all occasions. With musicians loyal to her, Cesaria moved from club to club, from island to island, playing concerts and earning a living for herself and her family.
But with the deliverance from colonial oppression and the coming to power of home-grown communists, the previously poor economy of the country, which was based solely on the tourism business, simply ceased to exist. A real famine began in the country, and most of the population was forced to emigrate. I must say that even now in the Cape Verdian diaspora lives much more people than in, so to speak, the metropolis. Naturally, cultural life also fell into complete decline.
Unlike many, Evora did not leave the country, but, so to speak, went headlong into internal emigration. These were the most difficult ten years of her life. She completely stopped singing, practically did not leave the house, she drank a lot and soundly. Almost ten years passed so bleakly and depressingly, and only in the mid-80s, when she was already over forty and the country woke up a little from hibernation, she began to sing again. And then it suddenly turned out that half of the Cape Verdian singers consider her their teacher.
In the mid-eighties, Cesaria, as part of a large delegation of Cape Verdian musicians, traveled outside the islands for the first time in her life. This trip was organized by some mysterious and semi-mythical organization - the Women's Committee of Cape Verde. Evora's path lay in Lisbon. What happened with this trip, history is silent, but it is known that Cesaria stayed in Lisbon, sang in the evenings in restaurants, collecting money for a return ticket. Either she felt sad in Mother Europe, or the concerts did not work out. In a word, she decided to leave for her homeland. Fortunately for her and ours, one evening when she sang at the Enclave restaurant, the French producer José da Silva looked in there. However, he was French only by passport, and was born and raised on the same Cape Verde Islands. Actually, at that time he still only dreamed of becoming a producer, but for now he worked at night as a lineman.
Nevertheless, if this meeting had not happened, then we, most likely, would never have known that there is a singer Cesaria Evora in the world.
Jose immediately realized what kind of diamond fell into his hands. He brought Cesaria to Paris, organized a professional recording for her, then another. Soon the first albums appeared: in 1987 - Distino De Bilita ("The Fate of a Beauty") and in 1988 - Diva Aux Pieds Nus ("Barefoot Diva"). However, these albums were little like what we learned later. These were primitive disco arrangements with synth drums and almost no live instruments. All this completely nullified the sincerity and emotionality of Evora's inimitable voice. They had little success, but only at dance parties from the Cape Verde Islands. However, gradually, through trial and error, Jose da Silva found that unique acoustic sound that subsequently conquered the whole world. He managed to find the right musicians - mostly natives of Cape Verde. The electronic sound was done away with once and for all. And Europe fell in 1991, when the album Mar Azul (“Azure Sea”) was released. Da Silva placed Cesaria in an environment familiar and understandable to her - a small acoustic ensemble (guitars and obligatory cavaquinho - rhythmic 4-string guitar, acoustic bass, percussion, violin, piano, saxophone, trumpet), the absence of complex arrangements and prepared forms, plus a completely live recording without overdubs - in this mode the whole album was recorded in two days! And success came.
The title song of the album, which, by the way, was written by Cesaria Evora's uncle B. Leza, already mentioned today, was played on French radio stations day and night. Let's listen to it now. The text is extremely simple, uncomplicated and poetic:
Sea! Take me to my country
To the country where my mother is waiting for me
Where everyone misses me!
Sea! I believe you!
Crescent, light my way
To the land where I spent my childhood.
San Vicente, your arms are my cradle...
Sea! And how many years have passed
As before, the moon is shining, and I was so far away!
Now, perhaps, it's time to talk a little about the genres of Evora's songs. Almost everything she sang can be divided into two groups - the already mentioned morns and coladeiras. Without going into details, it is easiest to characterize these two groups as follows: morna is a slow sad song, coladeira is a fast sad song. Stylistically, this music is a mixture of Portuguese fada and Brazilian bossa nova, superimposed on a whimsical African polyrhythm. From fada, Cape Verdian music inherited mainly a general melancholic mood, the utmost simplicity of harmonies, traditional melodic and harmonic moves of European music, and a deep hopeless minor. There are very few songs written in major in Evora's repertoire, and they are located on the periphery of her work. From bossanova, which, on the contrary, is a relatively young, complex, harmonically refined and sophisticated style, Cape Verdian music has taken constant swing and syncopation, but has given them its own coloring. The episode from documentary film about Evora, when she comes to the studio in New York to advanced American jazzmen, who ate the dog on the most complex jazz harmonies and all sorts of rhythmic tricks. They try to accompany her simple songs, but nothing comes of them. They fail to catch the subtle rhythmic shift of her singing. They do not coincide with it in movement, in tempo-rhythm, they cannot, as the musicians say, “get into it” - the music falls apart.
But back to morns and coladeiras. Only very few of Évora's songs can be called folklore - almost every one has attributed authors. But in the end, all folklore songs once had authors, only they were forgotten over the years. And the folklore of Cape Verde is still so young that the authors have not been forgotten.
We have just listened to the classical morna. Morna in Portuguese means "soft", "warm". This definition can equally apply to air, water, touch, heart or soul. Morna means "word" in Creole. The author of the first mornas is considered to be the outstanding poet Eugenio Tavaris, who lived at the end of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. Initially, these were poems, mainly dedicated to parting with their native home, farewell to the fishermen who go to sea, longing for their homeland. All this contains the Portuguese word saudade, modified into the Creole sodade. The closest Russian word to it in meaning is longing. But in a good way this word has no analogues either in French, or in English, or in Russian. This is some unimaginable mixture of nostalgia, melancholy and tenderness, a sense of loss of the present.
Melodically, harmonically, and even in mood, many morns are somewhat surprisingly similar to our gypsy romances.
Koladeira, while maintaining the same melancholy minor scale as a whole, is a more genre, dance and story song. Although it must be said that there is very little text in both morns and coladeiras - usually it is one or two verses and a chorus that are repeated many times. Let's now listen and see one collider from the same album "Mar Azul". I will say right away that the translation of this song could not be found, but it seems that it is not really needed. True, I seemed to be able to understand one phrase myself. This is the phrase "oh mother, escuse vergonia" - "mother, forgive me, shameless." The song is called "Let's dance cha-cha-cha".
3. Cinturao Tem Mele Danca Tcha Tcha Tcha
I hope you noticed an unshaven pianist in a hat and black glasses? This man's name is Paulinho Veyera, and he played as much, if not more, a part in creating the acoustic sound of Évora than José da Silva. He owns almost all the arrangements on Evora's first five acoustic albums. And on studio recordings of many songs, he performs almost all the parts - piano, guitar, cavaquinho, harmonica, percussion - in a word, a man-orchestra.
A year after the album Mar Azul, in 1992, the album Miss Perfumado ("Perfumed") was released, which became real bomb. In France alone, 200,000 copies were sold in the first month. Despite the fact that, for my taste, this album was generally weaker than the previous one. But on it there are two completely armor-piercing hits, without which not a single Evora concert could do later - these are the songs “ Sodade” and “ Angola”. They have become her calling cards. Of course, we will now watch and listen to them.
I have at least five versions of these songs in my video and sound library, and each of them has its own zest, but I still decided to stop at that live concert in the Bataclan club in Paris in 1995, an excerpt from which you have seen today. Largely in order to show you in all its glory the wonderful guitarist Armando Tito. Unfortunately, in the future, their paths with Evora diverged, as I believe, largely due to the fact that it was difficult for two such bright artists to get along on the same stage. Now we will look at these two things in a row. But for the sake of order, a few words about the texts, which are again very short, not to say lapidary.
Who showed you this long haul?
Who showed you this long way to Sao Tome?
Longing, longing, longing for my homeland of San Nicolau.
If you write to me, I will answer you.
If you forget me, I will forget you too
Until the day we meet again.
"Angola" is even shorter:
What a wonderful country!
Which funny people!
Dances and songs day and night.
But I won't die of pleasure because I can't stay here for long.
The next two years were devoted mainly to touring. In 1994, the album "Sodad" was released, consisting mainly of old songs - in general, not very successful. But this year, a landmark event takes place in the life of Evora - she stopped drinking. Previously, she not only drank a lot, as they say, in life (moreover, she preferred strong drinks - rum and cognac), but also allowed herself to drink directly during concerts, so, by her own admission, sometimes by the end of the concert she didn’t knit at all bast. I don’t know to what extent this is related to withdrawal, but literally a year later she released an absolutely amazing album under the modest name Cesaria, which, of course, can be called one of Evora’s best albums in general. If the success of her previous albums rested mainly on two or three hits, then practically every song here is a masterpiece. But it's not only that. Paulinho Veyera and José da Silva finally found Evora's optimal studio sound, which remained unchanged until the very end, although the musicians and arrangers subsequently changed several times. And one more important point: if the first four albums were dominated by viscous morns (for example, there is not a single coladeira on the Sodad album), now coladeira comes to the fore, and this makes the albums brighter, because musically, stylistically and Rhythmically, the coladeiras are still richer. And a kind of rhythmic counterpoint is especially clearly manifested in them, when, against the background of the rhythm section working at a frantic pace, Evora’s completely unhurried and even a little sleepy and lazy voice sounds, which at the same time, if you listen carefully, nevertheless turns out to be on some an elusive beat ahead of the accompaniment and does not always coincide with it on strong beats.
This album became a "gold disc" in France, and with it Evora flew to her first US tour, where he was nominated for a Grammy. The entire New York musical elite, including David Bowie and Madonna, gathered to see her "live" in New York's Bottom Line concert hall, and the latter, according to stories, even canceled her own concert for this. But, perhaps, the most important indicator of Evora's success in the States was the fact that applause was heard in the hall when she, as usual, lit up on stage. And this is in the States, with their indestructible paranoia towards smokers!
It was almost impossible to get to her concert (not only in the States). In 1998, I was in Paris and found out that her concert at the Olympia would take place these days. When I came to buy a ticket with a blue eye, they looked at me like I was crazy - all the tickets were sold four months ago. And even my acquaintances in the Ministry of Culture did not help.
Impressed by the Cesaria album, Goran Bregovic invited Evora to record the track Ausencia for the Emir Kusturica film Underground, which further contributed to her popularity.
Frankly, I'm in some difficulty, which songs from this album to choose. I want almost everything. But one is definitely not going anywhere. The album begins with this song and in French it is called "Petite Pays" - "Little Country". There is a little more text in it than in the previous songs, but not too much either:
You are like a star in the sky
You are like cool sand from the seabed,
You look from your rocks at the world.
O poor land where love blossoms,
Where mornas and coladeiras sound,
O beautiful country
Where drums and funan rhythms sound.
Oh, what longing, longing without end!
My little country, I love you so much!
My little country, I love it so much!
No matter how sad it is to admit it to us - people who are more or less literary-centric - the lyrics in Evora's songs are of secondary importance and do not represent independent artistic value. And, as far as I understand, not only for us who do not know the language, but also for its native speakers. The range of their themes is rather narrow - these are songs glorifying the beautiful homeland and the suffering of its people, or songs about love. There is also a fairly large group of songs dedicated to Evora's closest relatives - grandmother, mother, granddaughter, sister. We will listen to some of them today. But sometimes quite unexpected and completely unpredictable topics come across. Now I want to put on one of my favorite songs from the Cesaria album and invite you to try to at least roughly guess what is being sung in its only verse, framed by incredibly inventive tenor saxophone, violin and guitar solos. When I first got this album, due to some not too favorable circumstances, my friend's son lived in our house - a rather advanced young man, not alien to the craving for beauty. And while listening to this song, he told me that he imagines how in a sparkling white suit he rides in a luxurious convertible along some tropical coast, a fresh breeze blows through his hair, and this song plays from the player. I wonder what associations it will evoke in you.
7. D'nhirim reforma
So, the content of this song should be very close to the Russians. It is called "Pension Reform", and it sings about how difficult it is for old people to live on a miserable pension. Only their attitude to this matter is completely different there.
But this is not the most striking example of the discrepancy between form and content - of course, in our view. Now we will see a video for the song from Evora's next album, which is also called simply and unassumingly - Cape Verde. This album was released in 1997 after an extremely busy 1996 of continuous touring. That year Evora performed in France (40 concerts), Switzerland, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Sweden, USA (30 concerts), Canada, Senegal, Ivory Coast and finally in England, where in London hosted a sold-out concert at Queen Elisabeth Hall.
And the new album is characterized by the fact that it was written in different studios and even on different continents, and in the process of working on it, the accompanying ensemble gradually changed. All this partly affected its content - the album became even more danceable, songs with a distinctly pronounced "Caribbean sound" appeared in it, the arrangements became even richer and more refined. Only Evora's voice remained unchanged - still unhurried, natural, warm and at the same time detached, as if holding back sobs.
But let's continue our experiment and watch the clip, and once again you will try to guess what this song is about.
8. Sangue berona
Well, what are the options?
Of course, looking at this hilarious clip, it is almost impossible to guess. This song is called Byron's Blood. This is a specific Cape Verdian idiom, which means, I'm sorry, the blood of a virgin at the moment, so to speak, of the loss of said virginity by her. And the lyrics of the song go like this:
Byrona's blood is pleasant and sweet...
Who wants to know if she's really that good
Find her in the depths of the valley.
Byrona's blood is pleasant, sweet...
If you haven't been able to see her,
Look for the one who caused it.
Now let's listen to another song from this album. This time its content will be quite traditional. It's called "Old Mother". I must say that, despite world fame, Evora was a very domestic person and spent all her free time from the tour in her native Mindelo, among her mother, son, daughter, grandchildren ... In an interview, she did not get tired of repeating how she loves her old mother and misses her, how grateful she is for everything. It is not surprising that one of her most beautiful songs is dedicated to her mother.
You raised us around the kitchen stove (her mom worked as a cook).
Your black skirt and little scarf reminded us who we are.
Mom, mom, old mom,
I sing this song to you to please you a little.
You taught us that this world was made for life
That this world was made for love
But that he is also made for death and suffering.
In 1997, the French journalist Veronica Mortain came to Cesaria. This is how she described her home life:
“Cesaria's house is on May Day Street, in Mindelo. Who lives with Cesaria? Joan's old mother. Daughter Fernanda with two children. Son of Eduardo. Personal chauffeur. Chef Pirok. Producer, close friend and assistant of José da Silva. A middle-aged friend, a dog named Zeka, and a young man who is Cesaria's lover.
In her spare moments, Evora carefully takes care of her long nails, which she always paints in dark red. Well-groomed nails look ridiculous and even vulgar on her full, iron-mutilated hands. She began to do such a bright manicure in her youth, because she often laughed, and so that her bad teeth could not be seen, she covered her mouth with her hands. Having become famous and wealthy, she acquired a dazzling jaw, but the habit of painting her nails remained. Evora loves to wear gold jewelry - because before she could not afford it even in her wildest dreams.
Cesaria's passion for everything bright is unrestrained. On the dresser in her bedroom is a battery of perfume bottles, creams, nail polishes of unimaginable shades, brushes, powder puffs, combs and hair dryers. Makeup rituals are sacred to her! She seems to play the role of a princess that she could not play in her youth.
Cesaria constantly wears an apron with large roomy pockets, where she puts numerous keys, wads of money wrapped in plastic bags, and small change, which she generously distributes right and left. On the ground floor there is a dining room, where at any time of the day a table with good food will be laid for any guest.
Cesaria often takes a nap right on the floor in the hallway, putting a pillow under her head. Why in the hallway? She likes to watch passers-by scurrying around behind the wide open door.
By 1999, Evora's accompanying lineup had changed completely. Now its backbone was a group of a very famous Cape Verdian musician and composer Bau. In the same year, arranged by Bau and pianist Fernando Andrade, the album Café Atlantico was born. By this time Evora's producers could already afford to spend more money on the recording, and in some songs full-fledged wind and string groups appear - trumpets, violins, cello. At the very beginning of our evening, we already listened to one song from this album - this is the unforgettable "Antoshka-deroshka". And now let's listen to the first song of the album, especially since today the morna has not sounded for a long time. The song is called "Flor di nha esperansa" ("The Flower of My Hope")
When I learned that death does not spare the young,
That love has left the heart.
This morna is the remnant of my hope
Your love is deceitful, like a flower.
So many tears were shed before parting
Yes, and you had a hard time.
10 Flor di nha esperanca
After such a sentimental morna, it's time to talk about Cesaria's relationship with men. Here is what she told on this subject to the same Veronica Morten:
“The first time I fell in love with a wealthy businessman from Mindelo, and I did not even confess this to my mother, although I was already fourteen years old. Nobody knew anything about our relationship. The man was handsome and smelled incredibly good. With him I knew love. Today he is my great friend. He loves how I sing. But in those distant times, he did not even suspect that I would become a singer. I was a tight, indecisive, modest girl, reserved and secretive. I did not have girlfriends to whom I could entrust my heart secrets. Our relationship did not last long because I fell in love with the musician Eduardo. He discovered that I have a voice. We began to perform everywhere together. He composed songs and accompanied me on the guitar. And then suddenly one day he took it and left. And somewhere there, in a new place, he married very successfully. Now he lives in Holland and a few years ago he specially came to Rotterdam to play with me on stage. When my first son was born, he even wanted to adopt him, but I refused, because he was not his own father. But she named the boy Edward - in his honor.
I've had so many husbands that I've lost count of them. But there was never a legal spouse. Those from whom I gave birth to children did not live with me under the same roof. All my life I have lived with my mother. And the father of my first child was called Benjamin. He was originally from Portugal and worked as a mechanic on the ship on whose deck we met. I was eighteen then. And although in those days it was customary to rent apartments in the city for their mistresses, Benjamin did not. When he found out that I was pregnant, he immediately left and never returned. Little Eduardo never recognized his father.
I never thought about marriage. Well, that's the kind of woman I am: I fall in love with one and already look at the other.
I really liked the players. They were beautiful and popular. I often went to football matches to admire them! And only now it has stopped, otherwise ... all my feelings will return again, and I will start to twist love with them. The fathers of my two children are footballers. The son died in infancy, but the daughter survived. This is Fernanda, who lives with me along with her two children - my grandchildren, Janet and Adilson. They don't know their fathers either. In Cape Verde, it so happened that women raise children alone. Fathers either leave to work in an unknown direction, or they do not care where and how their child lives. Sometimes, however, young mothers leave their children to their parents and go nowhere for good luck. And even if young fathers manage to get somewhere, they never help abandoned wives and children. Therefore, our women get out as best they can.
I suffered greatly because Eduardo's own father did this to me and to his son. The father of my other daughter, by the way, continued to live here in Mindelo, in the neighborhood, but also did nothing for me or for her. The only man who behaved with dignity was Fernanda's father, the famous football player Pidukinba. He recognized her. Isn't that why I loved him the most? But one day he was invited to play under a contract in Portugal. At first he sent me money - I remember how I went to receive envelopes at his aunt's house. But one day it all ended.
As if summing up her personal life, Evora said in an American interview: "Men come and go, but music remains."
Meanwhile, in 2001, Evora released another album, São Vicente de Longe (Sao Vincente from afar). The album, in my opinion, is not the most successful, but for us it stands apart, because it was with this album that Cesaria first came to Russia the following year. Although in Russia she was known and loved for a long time, and pirated copies of all her albums were sold in unlimited quantities on Gorbushka.
Her first concert was a kind of corporate party. Having learned that Evora would perform in Kharkov in front of the Ukrainian elite (they said that Yulia Timoshenko arranged that concert), Alexander Mamut organized a private concert for her in Moscow, in the premises of the Anatoly Vasiliev Theater. I knew about this concert, but there was nothing to dream of going there - it was an event only for VIPs. But I got to her first open concert in the hall of the Maly Theater, despite the fact that in the coming days I was to have an operation to remove kidney cancer.
I already knew the album “São Vicente de Longe” by that time, and I was surprised only by the fact that Evora again almost completely changed the accompanying line-up. From the Bau ensemble, only pianist Fernando Andrade remained in the group, who became the leader of the new group and the author of all arrangements. But among others, Cuban violinist Han Corrales Subida, saxophonist Antonio Gomez Fernandez, percussionist Ademiro Paris Miranda and a very young but insanely talented solo guitarist Joao Pina Alves appeared among others. I was also surprised and saddened by the fact that, having performed almost all the songs from the album "São Vicente de Longe", Evora for some reason missed my favorite - "Esperanca Irisada". Now, ten years later, I can honestly admit that it was from this song that we once ripped off the rhythm section when we recorded “Thin Scar on Your Favorite Pope”. In frustrated feelings, I did not immediately realize that Evora did not include this song in the concert program, because the accordion is very important in the arrangement, and there was no accordionist in her tour lineup. Here is the song.
11. Esperanca Irisada
I half understood the title of this song: e speranca is, of course, hope, and irisada is clearly something connected with the rainbow. It turns out "Rainbow Hope". And, naturally, I thought it was something about love and didn't particularly go into details. But upon closer examination, it turned out that the lyrics of this song are somewhat unprecedented. I will not ask you to guess, I will say right away: this song is dedicated to Evora's granddaughter. Songs dedicated to children, although not often, are found in nature. For example, my "Daughter Blues". But the songs dedicated to the grandchildren, I confess, I have not heard a single one. Obviously, because when the singers have grandchildren, they rarely perform on the stage, and in any case they try not to advertise this fact of their biography. The text itself is nothing special, although unlike most of Evora's songs, it has quite a lot of words. In general it sounds like this:
“My dear granddaughter, a playful beauty with sparkling and joyful eyes. They contain all the hope of my country, which I miss so much. It seems that I hear your voice: “Grandma, come soon, we miss you!” Let my songs save you from troubles and misfortunes. Know that your grandmother, who travels all over the world, loves you and remembers you.”
After this concert, Evora became a frequent guest in Russia. She visited us almost every year and traveled all over our vast country far and wide. My friend Volodya Demchikov even organized a concert tour for her in the cities of Siberia and the Far East. And everywhere she collected full halls. Evora's concerts around the world were held with constant success, but she herself admitted that she was not accepted anywhere like in Russia. The mysterious Russian soul was somehow very close to the melancholic tunes from the small islands lost in the Atlantic Ocean. And even six months before her death, already seriously ill, she found the strength to come to Moscow and give a concert at the Crocus City Hall.
In 2003, with the new album Voz d amor ("Voice of Love"), which had received the Grammy Award by that time, she gathered a full house at the Olimpiyskiy. Now we will listen and watch one of the best songs of this album. But I must warn you in advance that I could not find a translation of this song, and I have absolutely no idea what it is about. But I could not include it in today's program for two reasons. Firstly, this is my wife's favorite song, and secondly, I really want to show you in all its glory the guitarist Joao Pina Alves.
12. Saia Travada
Meanwhile, Evora's health was getting worse, and the concert schedule was getting denser and richer. She had to give about 100 concerts a year - that is, almost every three days. And that's not counting flights from continent to continent, travel, rehearsals, recordings, communication with journalists, etc. For someone who has had little to do with this cuisine, this is simply impossible to imagine. Such crazy loads would be beyond the power of even a young and healthy person, and she endured at her age and with all her sores. For what? In one interview, Evora was asked what she loves most in the world. She thought a little and honestly answered: money. This sometimes happens with people who have lived almost their entire lives in hopeless poverty. There were many rumors that Evora supported almost the entire country with fees from her concerts and, in particular, fully funded the education system. I think that for the most part this is apocryphal, although she certainly did a lot of charity work.
Something else was worse. Continuous touring, declining health and growing fatigue could not but affect the quality of the concerts. Evora and her musicians have already worked them out "on the machine", without getting any pleasure from it. In such a situation, self-demanding inevitably falls. In addition, even with the highest professionalism of sound engineers, it is extremely difficult and hardly possible in principle to rebuild the sound of 7-8 live instruments each time in a new room with new acoustics. Therefore, often had to be content with a certain average sound. And only on studio recordings Evora and her musicians sounded the same. But there was less and less time and energy left to work in the studio.
Artemy Troitsky said: “Cesaria's death is largely the result of wear and tear, and I am absolutely sure that this wear and tear was also provoked by her French managers, who constantly demanded tours and new albums from her. I think if Cesaria Evora lived and sang for her own pleasure, and this obligation to perform, record and bring money left and right did not prevail over her, she would have lived for more than one year or even more than one dozen years.
After the "Voice of Love" a new album had to wait three years. It was called "Rogamar" - "Ode to the Sea". I heard him live at a concert in Yaroslavl in 2008, of course, already knowing from the recordings. And this concert, in general, disappointed me - no, everything was professional, as always, at the highest level, but the fatigue and emptiness of both Evora herself and her musicians were visible to the naked eye. And when, after the concert, we met with her in the hotel restaurant, it was just a pity to look at her. She sat completely exhausted, with difficulty ate a few spoons of boiled rice, and a few minutes later she went to her room, walking heavily with swollen legs.
And at the concert itself, as well as at the first concert in Moscow, she did not perform the two best songs of the album. And for the same reason - because of the lack of an accordion. But this time it was not just an accordionist that was missing - the phenomenal Madagascarian Régi Gizavo was missing, who recorded two accordion parts in the album. Now we will listen to these songs. The first one is called "Fish Traders". It sings in broad strokes about how heartless fishmongers in Lisbon curse a poor guy who was stupidly expelled from Cape Verde for no reason, and he misses his family very much. But the main thing in it, of course, is the unique accordion part, which in some way expands the idea of the limit of human capabilities and at the same time looks completely natural, organic and far from any kind of trickery.
13. Travessa de Peixeira
And another song from the same album. It is called "Sao Tome at the Equator". Here Rigi Gizavo does not play anything extraordinary (although he plays very well), but this is one of the most beautiful songs of Cesaria Evora and, in addition, one of only two waltzes in her repertoire. A very banal text of the song was written by Evora's regular author Teofilo Chantre, whom she once even brought with her to Moscow, but, as we have already said, the text in Evora's songs is of secondary importance.
"Sao Tome, my beautiful and unfortunate country, the blood of Bantu, Creoles and Angolans flows in your veins, you have known a lot of grief, but I believe that your future will be bright."
This is the advantage of listening to songs in an unfamiliar language. If we heard such a text in Russian, it would greatly spoil our impression of the song. And so - you listen, and it seems that the words are as beautiful as the music and performance. I remember in my youth I tried to listen to many soviet songs, trying to distance himself from the text, but it turned out badly - the mediocre text still stubbornly climbed into his ears. And in Creole - a pleasure.
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