In 1992, when Miss Perfumado was released, Cesaria Evora was 51 years old. Five years after her encounter with the French producer José Da Silva who has origins in Cape Verdean, her career was starting to take shape and reach beyond the Cape Verdean community. She had been singing since her teens and her voice had resonated in the cabarets of her archipelago as well as those of Lisbon, which welcome the nationals of former colonies. By then, she had went through a lot, mostly troubles: crooked contracts with almost invisible money, humiliating commitments in which she had to sing hidden behind a curtain to not risk bothering an upper-class clientele. But all this can now be erased, like cheap arrangements filled with fig-leaf synthesisers… Now, the violins, the guitars, the cavaquinho and the piano around her are real, and well tuned! Her voice, which has gone through a lot, cried a lot, laughed a lot and loved so much can rise, ever so natural, honest and heartbreaking to sing the tender complaint of her people. Beautiful bittersweet morna and hopping coladeira. Much like the rum of which she has often tasted the vapours, her voice has improved year after year; it has become truly irresistible, particularly as she performs a bespoke and delicately orchestrated repertoire.
On Miss Perfumado, the listener is spellbound from the very first note to the very last. The album of course features Luis Morais’ Sodade, which became famous all around the world and with which she became synonymous. There is also Ramiro Mendes’ Angola, which became another of her signature songs. It invokes the king of Cap Verdean poets, Francisco Xavier da Cruz a.k.a. B. Leza, one of the fathers of morna music. Cesaria perfectly fits his Morabeza that proclaims the beauty of Mindelo, the main city on their island. The album also features Miss Perfumado, which challenges one’s senses, and the emotional Lua Nha Testemunia, the last song written by B. Leza on the eve of his death in 1958, alone and a little forgotten. 34 years later, this album was also like a revenge for him, placing him on the throne of Cap Verdean music and launching the career of Teofilo Chantre, a young composer who authored three successful songs on the album. The past and the future are truly present to meet their destiny. Cesaria took her place as the country’s first lady. For its 20th anniversary in 2012, Miss Perfumado was remastered and re-released along with a previously unpublished track (Paulino Vieira’s Papa Joachin Paris) as well as extracts from her first two albums and the preceding record Mar Azul, which can be seen as the first draft of this masterpiece. © Benjamin Minimum/Qobuz