Essential Cesária Évora

Cape Verde's Césaria Évora was 47 years old before her career really took off on an international level in the late '80s, and she quickly became known as the foremost purveyor of the morna, which blends West African percussion with Portuguese fados, Brazilian modhinas, and British sea shanties into beautiful and haunting songs of longing, and she is equally at home singing coladera, which are songs that flip the coin on morna from sad longing to joyous playfulness. The two-disc, 32-song compilation combines plenty of examples of both song forms, and it makes for a wonderful survey of Évora's impressive talent. ~ Steve Leggett