In 1991, just a year before she hit it big in Europe with Miss Perfumado, Cesaria Evora hit her stride in Paris with this warm and wonderful recording of morna music from Cape Verde. Produced with a light touch by José de Silva, Mar Azul is still close to the nightclub, to the smoke and whiskey roots of her music as she sang it back home; the great band seamlessly mixes jazz, blues, swing, Latin, and African music into something unique for its time. It is lush yet simple, beautiful and gritty and clean, and totally about this voice. An acoustic guitar or piano rules each track, with bass, light percussion, and touches of violin, clarinet, harmonica, or horn just brushing up against it. This is really where Evora developed comparisons to Billy Holiday, in her ability to sound both fragile and tough. Like classic jazz-blues, this music is about pain and elegance, expressed through a voice that convinces you she has seen both and often can"t tell the difference. --Louis Gibson