Cesaria Evora, RIP

As the pundit and blogging worlds mourn the loss of a blowhard amoral drunk and reaffirms how much the media loves to talk about itself, the world should really be mourning Vaclav Havel and Cesaria Evora. I’ll leave it to others to eulogize Havel, only saying that for whatever disappointments in his late-life beliefs and actions, on the whole he was a massive force for good.

Less famous is Cesaria Evora, the great Cape Verdean singer. Cape Verde is one of the great musical treasures of the world, an island where many cross-cultural influences have come together to shape amazing art. Evora was probably the most famous Verdean musician and her voice is one of the all time greats. Her loss is far greater than Hitchens; I for one am very sad that she has passed. The impending demise of Etta James makes me even sadder, possibly in a compound way since although James and Evora are from different countries and sing in different languages, they share much in style, talent, and impact.