June 27, 2007
Cesaria Evora
We discovered Cesaria Evora while browsing CDs in the Virgin Record store on the Champs Elysee in Paris in 1996. We were there to run the marathon. We put on the headphones to listen to a track or two and instantly fell in love. She is from the Cape Verde Islands, off the west coast of Africa, which we sailed past in March 2005 on our way to the Caribbean from the Canary Islands.
She played Carnegie Hall last night to a sold-out crowd. She has performed in Toronto many times, but we have never been able to see her. I think we have every single one of her CDs, except for her latest one.
True to form, she performed barefoot. She was remarkable, and in broken English/ Portuguese, she introduced her 8 member band - two on drums, four on strings, one on piano, and one on sax. She said of herself "mi conductor". You just have to love her.
The opening act was The Bird and The Bee, an indie/ pop music duo from LA. I really got into their nerdy groove, but Chis thought they played too long. Have I said lately that he is four years' older than I? I especially liked Again and Again and Again and Again.
Posted by dave at June 27, 2007 08:05 PM