Saturday, December 17, 2011

Sodade

Live performance by Cesaria Evora of Sodade in Paris, 2010.
Cesaria was one of the truly great world musicians. This is the sound of Cape Verde.
She died today at age 70....
After I wrote this, my friend, Brian sent this anecdote. He is a producer who worked with Cesaria in the early 90's:

"She was wonderful.
I remember meeting her in Paris in 1990 or 1991. She loved singing but hated people looking at her. She much preferred being background music for people in bars while they were drinking. The idea that she was supposed to "perform" or put on some sort of show confused and annoyed her. She liked to just sit in a comfortable chair with a glass of scotch by her side and sing with the lights turned down.
I once tried to talk to her about Ella Fitzgerald, whom she adored, and she shrugged off any talk of music, just wanted to talk about her new refrigerator. She was enthralled by the idea that she could make ice at home. That she could put water in and ice would come out. This seemed to be worth a thousand Ella Fitzgeralds."

2 comments:

J.O.B. said...

I saw this today on a news report. Must say, I was very saddened. I can only hope that such an Angelic voice will spend time with Angels

microdot said...

I have this buddy in NYC...actually, we found out we were neighbors in NYC after we met here in France. He is a musician and has produced many records for world artists...we emailed each other regarding Evora's death and he sent this very touching anecdote from when he worked with her in the early 90's:
"She was wonderful.
I remember meeting her in Paris in 1990 or 1991. She loved singing but hated people looking at her. She much preferred being background music for people in bars while they were drinking. The idea that she was supposed to "perform" or put on some sort of show confused and annoyed her. She liked to just sit in a comfortable chair with a glass of scotch by her side and sing with the lights turned down.
I once tried to talk to her about Ella Fitzgerald, whom she adored, and she shrugged ogg any talk of music, just wanted to talk about her new refrigerator. She was enthralled by the idea that she could make ice at home. That she could put water in and ice would come out. This seemed to be worth a thousand Ella Fitzgeralds."