Noir: R.I.P. Cesaria Evora

One of the Greatest Unknown is Silenced Forever!

Cesaria Evora died over the weekend at her home on her 
native island of Sao Vicente.

Can't place it? It's one of the Cape Verde islands. And you may not be able to place them either. With reason: this archipelago sits 350 miles off the coast of Senegal.

It was Cesaria Evora's fate to be born there. Geography was destiny for her -- her voice was the living soul of Cape Verde. But Cape Verde is also the reason that one of the greatest singers on the planet died without being better known.

These ten small islands are so wind-blasted and desolate that they were uninhabited until 1462. Four centuries of exploitation followed. And Cape Verde's poverty has continued to be so severe that over a third of its million citizens live abroad. So you really couldn't expect the islands' muse to fill her CDs with songs that make you want to dance.

In fact, Cesaria Evora's specialty was morna, an intensely melancholy, minor-key music, sung mostly in Portuguese. But for Evora, Cape Verde's musical tradition was only the first reason that her songs were odes to longing and regret. Although she was a local star by 20, she never left the islands until she was in her mid-forties, when she finally made her first recordings.

The queen of "morna" music was a heavy cigarette smoker and drinker (as you can see in the video above). She retired in September in ill health, apologizing to her fans. She underwent open-heart surgery in 2008, and survived multiple strokes; her death today was related to those health problems. Two days of national mourning have been declared in her home country.
She died today (12/17/11) in her native town of Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente, in Cabo Verde.