Nha Sentimento

The video is a live performance by the Cape Verdean Artist, Cesaria Evora. I fell in love with the amber voice of Madame Evora in the mid 90's when I heard her perform this song from her album of the same name.

Cape Verde is an archipellago of islands off the coast of Angola in Southwest Africa. It was a Portuguese colony and the musical legacy of Portugal remains in a lush cultural stew of language, rythmns and music. Like the flavors of Brazil and Portugal, Cape Verde shares a lot of the same musical traditions, the passionate vocals of Fado, the beat of the Samba and the influence of Arabic and African traditions. the Verdean tradition of bluesy ballads is called Mombas and Cesarias smoky voice suits the music perfectly.

Cesaria has had a real life, she was an orphan at an early age from a musical background. She was discovered as a teen and sang in Cape Verde and slowly aquired the reputaion that catapaulted her to the world stage. Much of her early radio work was recently compiled on a release called Radio Mindelo.

She has been releasing records and touring for the last 20 years. Her relaxed warmth comes through on stage as she stands barefoot with her band. She has been absent for the last 2 years due to a hear attack, but she is back now with a new release, Nha Sentimento,

available now as a digital download and soon to be released world wide in cd form.

Through the years, on her musical journey, she has been ale to meld the Verdean tradition with the traditions of other music. She has recorded records with Cuban, African ad Brazilian musicians. On Nha Sentimento, she collaborated with an admirer, Fathy Saloma, the former conductor of the Cairo Symphony. The rest of the musicians and tracks are Verdean friends who have played with her for years.

If you have never heard the music of Cape Verde, this is an excellent place to start. The island is a melting pot of cultures and traditions and Cesarias rich,  warm and welcoming voice is the perfect way to experience "morebeza" 

Perhaps this is the spirit of morabeza, the warm welcome Cape Verdeans are known to give to visitors of their homes and of their country. "We are a people who like to be sympathetic with other people," Cesaria explains. "It doesn't matter where you come from, who you are... dress doesn't matter, the color of your skin... what we like to do is to make you feel at home. That is morabeza ." As the lyrics of "Parceria E Irmandade say, "Morabeza is our essence//It's our lifeblood, it's not oil//It's our happiness smiling//It's a tear of sodade."