News in from LusAfrica: She's back, Cesaria has a new album Nha Sentimento ! Cesaria Evora began her career as a singer in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente more than forty-five years ago. Aged just twenty, she was already singing of romantic disappointments and the remoteness of the Cape Verde islands, expressing a remarkable melancholy that is illustrated by recordings made at the time, reissued at the end of 2008 on an album simplt titled, 'Radio Mindelo'. Entrenched in a saudade of universal appeal, settling quietly over her windswept islands, this Atlantic melancholy remains Cesaria Evora’s trademark.

Whether she sings coladeras (catchy songs perfect for the dance floor) or mornas (Cape-Verdean blues), her voice holds an inescapable fascination for the listener. Three years after “Rogamar”, the Cape-Verdean singer is back with Nha Sentimento,
an album that combines gravity and lightness of tone.

Despite suffering a stroke during her Australian tour in 2008, Cesaria is going on with her career. Although at 68 (she was born on the 27th August 1941) her voice may be more distant and a lithe less sinuous than in the past, it is still steeped in the emotions that brought her universal fame as a Creole Billie Holiday in the second half of the twentieth century.

This new opus is more coladera than morna. Recorded by Nando Andrade and produced by José da Silva, 'Nha Sentimento' conveys a deep emotion that never detracts from apparently light-hearted, but often seriously-motivated songs, whose joie de vivre repeatedly proves stronger than their sorrow, regret and desire. When this is not the case, the words convey an insular resignation that is very much a part of Cesaria, since she has
so clearly experienced the things she sinus about - on Vento de Suesté, for instance, a song that conjures up feelings that have never left her.

Zinha is one of the album’s liveliest tracks. It is a carefree song that suggests strong emotion, but is eminently danceable. As on most of the album’s tracks, Cesaria is backed by delicate percussion work from Tey Santos. Heir to the Cape-Verdean musical scene of the 50s and 60s, Santos learned to play with musicians of the day and they passed on their skills to him.

In his playing, we detect a certain nostalgia for those golden years. He perpetuates a style that has almost vanished today, but perfectly suits Cesaria’s voice. He previously accompanied her on the “Mar Azul” album that brought her worldwide recognition in 1991. His terribly-subtle, but very-present style of playing is one of the record’s key ingredients. Producer and pianist Nando Andrade features it prominently, emphasising the feeling of nostalgia, while the more modern technique of his fellow percussionist Miroca Pans is only rarely apparent.

The other high point of 'Nha Sentimento' is Ligereza, featuring accordion from Henry Ortiz recorded in Bogota.
The song works an immediate charm, like the light caress of a summer breeze. Ortiz brings a Latin touch to the
Cape-Verdean melody, giving us the feeling that the piece is tenibly familiar.

Cesaria's singing is closely entwined with the record’s production and the work of the musicians accompanying her. In fact, she has put more into the recording process than ever here, working in close partnership with Nando. She is at her emotional peak, recapturing all the intensity and quality of her finest years.

Although Cesaria has tended towards the catchiest of songs on this album, she has by no means turned her back on the musical style for which she became famous. The three mornas on the album - Vento de Sueste, Sentimento and Mam’Bia F So Mi - are enhanced by Egyptian string arrangements from Fathy Salama, who conducted the Cairo Orchestra. This natural partnership underlines the Arab roots claimed for morna, via Arab Andalusian music, by musicologist Vasco Martins and writer Manuel de Novas.

Buy a copy of 'Nha Sentimento'.