Track Listing

1. Tchintchirote
2. Sabine Largam' [Sabino, Leave Me]
3. Partida [The Departure]
4. Sangue de Beirona
5. Mar É Morado Di Sodade [The Sea Is the Home of Nostalgia]
6. Bô Ê Di Meu Cretcheu [You Are Mine, Beloved]
7. Coragem Irmon [Take Courage, Brother]
8. Quem Bô Ê [Who Are You? Mix]
9. Regresso (Return)
10. Mãe Velha [Old Mother]
11. Pe Di Boi [Quarrel Theme]
12. Ess Pais [This Country]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179401 in Music
• Released on: 2001-03-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .50" h x 4.90" w x 5.40" l, .15 pounds

From Amazon.co.uk
Cesaria Evora sings morna, a cool mix of blues, jazz and Portuguese folk that is the national passion of Cape Verde. It's usually played on caviquinhos and guitars, sometimes piano, an occasional horn, with light touches of percussion. It is laidback compared to many other Latin and Portuguese derivatives, but it is made for the singer and the song. Cesaria Evora has a whiskey-and-cigarettes voice, a mournful, worldly style that has become what most folks think of when they say morna. Cabo Verde doesn't hit the high point of Miss Perfumado--it's a little heavier in the production and her voice not as powerful as in the past. But hers is still a magnificent voice, and if you have other Evora recordings, you'll want this one too. --Louis Gibson

Amazon.com essential recording
Like Ireland, Cape Verde is a former island colony which has perennially lost its young people to emigration. And like its Irish counterpart, Verdean music is filled with songs of separation and homesickness. Cesaria Evora, the greatest Verdean singer of her generation, includes several of those songs on Cabo Verde, her sixth album overall but only her second release in the U.S.

With a population descended from former Portuguese colonialists and former African slaves, Cape Verde closely resembles Brazil and has produced a music with similar rippling syncopation and light, sensual vocals, though the Verdean sound is marked by the breezy lilt characteristic of islands. But when Evora sings mournfully of a "Partida" (departure) that will take her love far away, anyone who has ever experienced such a separation will recognize the mix of pain and affection in her voice. That voice is a very special instrument, for it glides gracefully over the supple beat even as it resounds deeply in Evora's lower range and fills up with warm, enveloping resonance. She is backed by a small, all-acoustic Verdean combo led by the ukulele-like, four-string cavaquinho. American jazz great James Carter plays tenor saxophone on "Coragem Irmon," but Evora has no problem matching his thick, buttery tone. --Geoffrey Himes