Cesaria Evora – vocals, Fernando José Andrade – piano, Domingos Gomes Fernandes – saxophone, João José Alves – guitar, José Paris Neves – bass guitar, Paulino Soares Vieira – cavaquinho, Ademiro Paris Miranda – percussion, Antero Julio Santos – percussion, Julián Corrales Subidá – violin The Republic of Cape Verde finds itself faithfully reflected in its music bearing the traces of its long history under Portuguese rule. It has West African rhythms, but its fundamental character, that of morna, is European. Born in 1941 Cesaria Evora lost her father when very young and was brought up in a Catholic care-home as her mother could not look after her six siblings and her. At the age of sixteen she fell in love with a Dutch guitar playing sailor, an affair that had a serious role in Evora taking up singing. After giving birth to their daughter the man returned to Holland while Evora remained to sing in the bars of the harbour. The local radio made some recordings with her that found their way to Holland and Portugal, but she never travelled until 1987 when an emigrant contemporary of hers introduced her to the director of the Lusafrica record company José da Silva. Since her debut album in 1988 La diva aux pieds nus, the “barefoot diva” has released nine albums and is one of the most celebrated figures of world music. Her international reputation has necessitated her taking up songs of other countries: with the albums Café Atlantico and São Vicente di Longe her crew have been joined by Cuban musicians and Brazilian singers. She premièred her 2006 album Rogamar at the Palace of Arts. Her next CD is expected in spring 2009, and so it will arrive in Hungary still hot and fresh. Cesaria Evora is one of those artists from whom audiences are only too happy to hear “the same”, because she always astounds and transfixes.

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