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The African island nation of Cape Verde is little known exceptfor its musical treasure, singer Cesaria Evora. Radio Mindelo is a collection of assured and memorable recordingsfrom the early 1960s, made in a local studio when Evora was barely 20 and Cape Verde wasstill a Portuguese colony. She was a prodigy, already infusing the materialwith emotional experience that seemed beyond her years. Evora’s limpid voicehovers in the muggy heat of the melodies, catching on the words as small combosof stringed instruments and percussion accompany her. A few of the songs have alively Latin-Caribbean tempo but most exude a restrained passion close to themoody spirit of fado, the characteristic genre of Portugal whose roots probablyextend to the maritime nation’s former Afrcan colonies.
