Sad News - Cesaria Evora Died

Gosh - first Christopher Hitchens died on Friday.  I plan to write and post about him, what he meant to me and why - but I've not been able to yet.  I will.  I will.  And on Vaclav Havel too.


And now the very, very sad news that Cesaria Evora has died.  She had a stroke in September.   The LA Times obituary wrote this:  

Her singing style brought comparisons to American jazz singerBillie Holiday and the great French singer Edith Piaf.   

"She belongs to the aristocracy of bar singers," French newspaper Le Monde said in 1991, adding that Evora had "a voice to melt the soul."

She melted mine.  I got to see her once here in DC, at the Lisner Auditorium.  I will never forget it.  Such joy and astonishing beauty moved me to tears.  She is one of my goddesses.   

The only music concert DVD I own is hers.   I own all of her albums and play them all the time, but among my favorite of her songs are Angola, Sodade, Embarcacao and, of course, the magnificent "Carnaval De Sao Vincente."  I love listening to that one on a summer day with the roof down.  Whenever, where ever, it never fails to make me smile.  Except for today.  

If I die a slow death I hope to do so while listening to her singing as I don't know a better soul to usher me into the divine.   


Here is her official web site. 

Hitchens rattled my brain but she moved my heart.  Thank you, barefoot diva.